


Blood of the Coven

by libra_horizon_writing



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, F/M, Fantasy, M/M, Magic, Witchcraft, Witches
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:42:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 38,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27406768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/libra_horizon_writing/pseuds/libra_horizon_writing
Summary: In this world, witches are their own society, they live in and among humans but follow their own laws and codes. ATEEZ are witches from many covens that came together to form their own, while Lauren Muldoon is a young witch who simply was born into the wrong coven.
Relationships: Choi San/Jung Wooyoung, Lauren/tba, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	1. Main Characters

## 

## 

##  _**** _

##  _**Lauren Muldoon** _

Shifter Type: Red Fox

Magic Specialty: Nature/Telekinesis

##  _**Hongjoong** _

Shifter Type: Cheetah

Magic Specialty: Mind Control/Demonic

##  _**Seonghwa** _

Shifter Type: Bengal Tiger

Magic Specialty: Herbal/Healing

##  _**Yunho** _

Shifter Type: Golden Retriever

Magic Specialty: Empathy/Truthseeker

## 

_**** _

##  _**Yeosang**_

Shifter Type: Snowy Owl

Magic Specialty: Glamours/Animals

##  _**San** _

Shifter Type: Siberian Husky (Black)

Magic Specialty: Tracker/Hunter

v

##  _**Mingi** _

Shifter Type: Flemish Giant Rabbit (Blue)

Magic Specialty: Summoning/Binding

##  _**Wooyoung** _

Shifter Type: Siberian Husky (Golden Brown)

Magic Specialty: Elemental/Teleportation

##  _**Jongho** _

Shifter Type: Black Bear

Magic Specialty: Invocation/Mediumship


	2. Chapter One: The Beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song(s): “Rare” by Waterparks, “Mixtape: Gone Days” by Stray Kids

The air is brisk, near-freezing as the wind cuts through the colorful leaves, bringing forth a soft rustling that echoes through the forest. It sweeps through the underbrush and over the streams, making even the still water ripple quietly. There’s a near-silence which blankets the world below the treetops, accompanied by the gentle rustle of creatures moving around and the soft bubbling of the streams. Even though someone walks through the paths towards the water’s edge, their footfalls are light and unheard, disturbing nothing. Brown, worn leather boots step up to the side of a larger stream, the water greeting them eagerly as it seems to reach up the bank towards them. A small giggle escapes in response as they crouch down, reaching a fair-skinned hand out to run their fingers over the water’s surface. Reflected in the water is a young female witch, Lauren Muldoon, her fiery red hair falling in fluffy waves over her shoulders. There’s a line of freckles dancing across her nose, which brightens the soft blue-green tone of her eyes as she smiles down into the water.

“Long time no see, I know,” she says in a soft voice, grinning wider as the water flutters under her fingertips in response. “I’ve been busy with the coven, taking more classes and such as expected, but I got some time, and I brought you something!”

The excitement in her voice is palpable as she sits back on her heels, reaching back to where an old worn satchel lies. She rummages around in it for a minute before pulling a jar out and turning back to the water. The jar is full of crystal-clear water, and inside, a vibrant purple fish is swimming around frantically.

“I know my coven doesn’t care much for water spirits or any magical creatures, and this poor guy was just sitting in class for us to study,” she frowns, her lips tugging down. She gently holds the jar, and pries open the lid. “I knew as soon as I saw him that he looked familiar, so I had to bring him home. If my teacher ever finds out,” she gives a strained laugh as she tips the jar; the water spills into the stream and releases the fish.

In an instant, the water ripples and at least ten other vibrant, colorful fish appear, darting towards the new addition. It’s a happy reunion as they swim around each other in a fast circle.

“Guys!” she laughs, rocking back on her heels as she places the jar down. “You’ll make yourselves dizzy, don’t do that.”

Shaking her head, she turns back to her satchel and pulls out a Ziploc bag. Carefully opening it, she shakes it for a second before pouring the grainy brown contents into the stream. The fish take to the surface immediately, more appearing as well, and begin eating the food.

With a heavy sigh, she pouts, folding her arms over her knees as the long black cloak she wears sways and surrounds her small form. “I have a huge summoning project coming up, so I definitely won’t be able to stop by for a while. They always dump so much on me in particular, I think everyone in the coven has it out for me,” she huffs, blowing her hair from her face. “I promise, as soon as things let up and before the stream freezes, I will be back.”

The fish jump happily, flapping their fins at her.

A full, shy smile graces her face. She watches the fish for a little while more before they eventually dart off and vanish. Once the vibrant colors are gone, she sighs solemnly and pushes herself up to a standing position.

Before she can reach back down to grab her satchel, a shadow moves off to her left, and the sound of a twig snapping under someone else’s foot shatters the silence. Spinning around, she raises her hands, muttering a quick incantation under her breath as she waves them towards the bushes the sound came from.

“Lauren, wait! It’s just me!” A man’s sharp voice shouts in surprised defense as vines spring up from the earth, reaching into the underbrush to wrap around one of the man’s legs. He doesn’t give much of a fight, following the vine as it pulls him out, hopping on one foot as he kicks the other out, trying to dislodge the vine.

Lauren relaxes immediately at the sight of the dark-haired male witch, still desperately trying to get the vine to let go.

“Damien,” she says, waving her hand to dismiss the vines. They uncurl from around his leg and sink back into the ground in an instant. “What are you doing here?”

Dusting off his dark jeans where the vines left rings of dirt, Damien scoffs. “Following you, of course,” he turns his gaze to her, staring at her with piercing, crystal blue eyes. “A certain fish vanished from Mr. Lewis’s classroom, and I had a hunch. So, I followed it.”

With a roll of her eyes, Lauren turns back to her things, picking up her satchel and placing the jar and bag back into it before swinging the strap over her head to rest on her shoulder. “Now what, you gonna turn me in?”

Damien smiles. “Nah, I’ll just inform Mr. Lewis it was you, and you’ll receive another detention.”

She shakes her head, turning away from him without a word. 

As she begins to make her way back towards their coven village, he follows right on her heels with a sly smirk.

“No comment?” He questions with a small chuckle. “Aw, come on, Lauren, at least give me some sort of response.”

“Damien,” Lauren’s tone has a warning edge to it, “as much as I love our love-hate relationship, I’m not in the mood for your teasing today. I’ve got an errand to run for my dad and demonology homework to finish before Mrs. Taylor’s ridiculous due date.”

Tilting his head back, he shoves his hands in the pockets of his jeans, clicking his tongue. “Right, you’re in some of those upper, upper-level classes. You’re quite overachieving for your age, haven’t even settled on a specialty yet.”

“I’m not an overachiever,” she turns her head to look back at him. “I’m just smarter than you idiots,” she flicks her hair over her shoulder as she turns back and continues on the path.

He grumbles under his breath, cursing at her quietly as he follows behind her.

The freshly fallen leaves crunch under their boots as they walk through the obscured deer path, looping through the trees and bushes. Damien makes a few more comments here and there, but Lauren keeps her lips sealed. They reach the tree line on the east side of the village. The path transition from dirt to old cobblestone streets as they step into one of the main squares, where a majority of the coven’s shops stand. The square is quieter than usual, with only a handful of other witches wandering around. Lauren silently prays she can escape the village without incident.

“Alright, Damien,” she rounds on him, crossing her arms over her chest and tilting her head to the side. “I have to go into town for some errands.”

His nose immediately wrinkles in distaste. “You go to the human town too much.”

She rolls her eyes. “Humans are not as bad as everyone makes them out to be.”

“You and your brainless father are the only ones who think so,” a shrill voice comes from their left.

“There goes leaving without incident,” she turns to flash a fake smile at the approaching group of witches. “Sarah, always lovely to see you sis, and I see your minions are in tow.”

“Half-sis,” Sarah corrects, with a cold glare. She then smiles brightly, brown eyes sparkling as she brushes past Lauren, throwing herself all over Damien. “Babe, what are you doing with her? Is she the one who broke into Mr. Lewis’s office?”

Wrapping an arm around her, Damien gives her a quick kiss and a soft smile. “I was confirming that theory; yes, she is.”

The two other witches who followed Sarah snicker, shaking their heads. Each mutter under their breath. Lauren shoots them a glare, which only makes them grin.

“Shall we take her to our High Priest then?” One of the other witches raises their hands, shackles in the form of lightning appearing between them, sparking.

“Not today,” Lauren steps back, “I still have errands to run and work to finish before class tomorrow. So, thanks, but no.”

Sarah’s nose wrinkles in disgust, whether it be at Lauren’s comment or her voice, Lauren isn’t sure. Before Sarah can make another retort or scathing remark, Damien cuts in with a forced laugh.

“I’m still telling on you, I’m sure you will hear from the teachers soon,” is all he says as Lauren begins to step back further.

“That’s not new,” she rolls her eyes and spins to face away. “I’ll see you guys in class tomorrow.”

With that final remark, she walks away.

She raises her hands, holding one in front of her and moving two fingers on the other in quick circles. The air sparks, cracking open. After she mutters a small incantation, the crack pulls open and create a portal. The quiet of the village is replaced by the sound of voices, cars, and shopping carts. She walks right through the stationary portal, passing through. 

On the other side, she finds herself miles east of her coven’s village in the human town of Aberdeen, the town she and her father frequent for garden and herb supplies. The portal stands in a small woodland area behind the local grocery store.

Once she drops her hands, the portal closes.

She lets out a relieved sigh, relaxing her shoulders. Rolling her neck, she makes her way out of the woods and into the store. From her satchel, she pulls out her father’s note, dark chicken scratch letters spell out a list of herbs, plants, and ingredients needed for their personal garden and potions. 

In this setting, pushing a cart around the store and gathering items, Lauren looks like nothing more than an average adult shopping. A few of the cashiers and staff recognize her and her father both on occasion. Still, to anyone else, she’s just another human.

“There she is again,” the guy’s voice is trying to be quiet, but the empty aisles cause it to carry through the store. Without looking up from the vegetables she’s picking through, Lauren tunes her hearing to listen to him. “I’m correct in thinking she’s weird, right?”

“Oh definitely,” another voice pipes up, this one distinctly female and memorable. “We had some classes in both high school and at the community college up in Sand Hills. Complete loner; always by herself; very weird.”

“What do you think is up with her? She doesn’t live around here,” he says.

“Oh, I know. I even asked around,” the girl laughs.

Lauren rolls her eyes, ripping a bag off the roll to start placing vegetables in. 

“No,” the girl continues, “we think her and her dad are hermits. Possibly something weirder.”

The guy hums, “they’re dressed too nice for hermits, maybe they’re something supernatural!”

Lauren tunes them out at that point, pushing her cart away and down another aisle.

“Not witchy enough for the coven, not human enough for humans.” 

The conversation leaves her with a sour taste for the rest of the trip. After everything is purchased, she carries the bags with her outside and through a new portal.

The stale air of the grocery store is replaced by the homey smell of her kitchen. Lauren’s posture relaxes immediately as the portal closes, leaving her standing alone in the dark. She takes a second to breathe in the scent before reaching to her left, flicking a switch on the wall. The lights above flicker, humming to life and painting the old kitchen in a yellow glow. 

As she sets all the bags down on the counter, she calls out to her father. “Dad, I’m home!”

There’s a moment of silence before a pop is heard, and her father appears beside her. “Get everything?”

“All but something to drown my sorrows in,” she begins pulling items out and placing them on the counter.

He eyes her for a second, looking at her form over his glasses as he smirks. “Long day, so I heard.”

She freezes just after placing the seed packets down.

“Mr. Lewis gave me a visit before I left my class,” he starts slowly, focusing on pulling out the items and putting them away. “Turns out, he lost a creature, and Damien declares you are the culprit. So does Sarah, but we know her word when it comes to you needs to be taken with a few dozen grains of salt.”

“At least you get my sister,” she deflates, falling to rest against the opposite counter by the sink as she watches him finish putting things away. “I have detention, but I did it for a good cause!”

He hums, pushing up his glasses. Once he’s finished with the groceries, he turns and says, “I understand why you did it,” and she smiles. “Mr. Lewis treats all magical creatures as something to step on, but you did get caught. So, since you got caught, you will serve the time, which is detention tomorrow after your classes.”

Groaning, she throws her head back and stomps her feet. “It was a worthy cause, I hate it, but I was good.”

“I agree,” he reaches over and ruffles her hair, “I love when you are like this, it reminds me of your mother and proves I raised you well.”

“You did a great job on your own,” she smiles up at him, “not every dad can be a single dad.”

Laughing, he nods his head and rubs the back of his neck. “That’s true, and we don’t have many like me in this coven.”

“Oh right,” her features drop instantly, “speaking of which, I almost attacked Sarah today. Like, I thought about it, but I didn’t physically react in any way.”

“Oh no,” his eyes darken, and the room grows cold. “What did that idiot do?”

Quickly raising her hands, she steps forward with a strained smile. “She didn’t do anything to me, but she did call us brainless. Same-old, same-old, I just didn’t care for the brainless part.”

Her comment relaxes him enough to make him smile again. “Don’t mind her, she can call me brainless all she wants. We know I’m smarter than this whole coven.”

“I’m just glad she left mom out of it this time,” she says.

“If she had brought up her mother again,” he sucks air in through his teeth as he pushes his messy flyways from his face. He breathes out harshly, giving a crazed look, and instead of finishing, he grabs the seed packets from the counter and heads towards their backdoor.

She knows her mother is a sour subject for her father. However, the fact that she still knows nothing about her sudden departure sits heavy in her mind. The rest of the coven makes it a point to remind her that her father is not a faithful witch, and he should be hanged for his fascination with humans. In her father’s vague words, she was a healer and the most brilliant witch he knew, who actually loved his ideas about humans and witches coming together. These contradicting stories leave her with little to no real information.

When she reaches the backyard, her father is kneeling in the grass and setting up his tools. He’s pulled his hair back into a small, messy ponytail, which doesn’t keep all the hair from falling in his face. Summoning a hairband of her own, Lauren throws her hair up in a bun before striding past their flourishing garden to sit down next to him. As he begins to dig up some new holes, she opens the seed packets and begins placing them gently in the dirt, spreading them out as evenly as she can.

Together they work in near silence. The wind rustling through the trees is the only noise filling the air beside their movement and work. Once the dirt is patted down, and the seeds are covered, she uses a simple incantation to water it.

As they begin to clean up, she finally broaches the topic of her mother.

“Hey dad,” she starts, using a cautious tone, “we mentioned mom earlier, and I couldn’t help but – once again – wonder what happened.”

Without missing a beat, her father says, “I told you before, sweetie. We can discuss that topic when you’re older.”

“Yeah, so you’ve said, but,” drawing the word out, she takes all the tools from her father’s hands. “I’m almost forty, I think I’d be able to know by now. I know I look twenty-something still, but we all know I’m much more mature than I was twenty years ago.”

He stares at her for a second, frowning. “You’re still a baby witch, I don’t make the rules. No one’s going to call you a full-fledged adult witch until you’re at least fifty, maybe seventy, and definitely when you reach triple digits.”

“You haven’t even reached triple digits,” she smacks his shoulder as she shakes her head, then she moves the tools through the air to rest in the wooden box by the back door.

“My point exactly,” he taps her nose before pushing off the ground and standing up, “that’s why fifty is the low bar.”

“Dad,” she whines, standing up to follow him as he heads inside. “Come on, now is a good as time as any. You always say I look like mom, I act like mom, hell I’m positive what I did today was exactly what mom would have done!”

“It is,” he walks into the kitchen, turning on the sink with a flick of his finger. He washes his hands while looking at her. “As a healer and nature specialty, similar to you, she was very protective of the forest creatures in this area, but I still don’t think it’s time.”

Lauren continues to grumble under her breath as she waves her hand, a hand towel floats from the far counter up to her father. He turns off the sink with another motion and takes it with a smile.

They stand there for a second, staring at each other as he dries his hands, and she crosses her arms over her chest.

“You aren’t going to drop this, this time, are you?” He raises a brow at her, setting the towel down.

“Nope,” she pops the ‘p’ with a grin.

He steps forward to wrap an arm around her shoulders. “There is so much of your mother in you,” turning them towards the hallway, he steers them into the living room and pulls her down to sit on the couch with him. “Passion, drive, your abilities, and you even look like her.”

“I have your freckles, though,” she points out, “and your wit.”

“True,” nodding his head, he beams, “but you still have all your mother’s features. If we were humans in a normal town, I’d have soccer moms giving me dirty looks and asking why the Asian man is taking care of the white baby.”

She laughs, nodding along with his words.

“It would have been nice though if I had managed to have a son like I wanted,” a dreamy smile lights up his face, “he’d look like me. That way, we’d have a matching set of kids.”

“Dad,” she gently elbows his side, “you’re straying off the subject again.”

Groaning in fake pain, he clutches his side and leans away, eyes closing in mock pain. After a second, he peaks one eye open at her. “My ploy isn’t working, is it?”

With a roll of her eyes, she asks, “does it ever?”

“Alright, you’ve worn me down,” he sits back up, shifting, so he’s facing her. “You wanna know what happened to your mother?”

She nods her head happily.

“Well,” he thinks for a second before beginning, “she was the love of my life, still is actually. I’d give anything to travel the world and find out where she went, but I had you to take care of. The incident which led to all this happened shortly after you were born. I promise I’ll keep the details as brief as I can, nothing too graphic.”

Wrinkling her nose, she mutters, “that’s gross.”

“Hey, you wanted to know!” he raises his hands in defense, but she uncrosses her and slaps at them.

“Spill it already!”

“Okay, okay, don’t wound me,” he shoves her hands away with a smile. “Alright, so, it was the middle of fall. I had late classes, and your mom was visiting her parents on the north end of the village with you, now they never liked me, so I knew I wouldn’t see her for a while. I came home and was pleasantly surprised to find your mother waiting. I thought it was strange, but she said she wanted to have some time alone with me. I, being in love as I was, agreed because it had been a while. We ate a good dinner, drank some wine, and ended up in bed together.”

Her nose wrinkles again, and she actually recoils. “I repeat again, gross.”

“I repeat again, you wanted to know,” he points a finger at her, shaking it before dropping his hand. “Now, listen to this next part cause the rest of the coven will give you a different story,” he waits for her to nod her head before continuing. “In the aftermath, I was lying in bed with your mother, happily talking about the possibility of another kid. I was explaining that if we did, you two would be close in age when suddenly your mother walks in.”

“Wait,” tilting her head, she blinks a few times, “how does that work?”

“That’s what I asked myself,” at this point, his eyes glaze over. “I was like, ‘honey, why are you in two places at once?’ Well, it turns out, when I looked down to see who I was holding, it was your half-sister’s mother, Linda. She was the only witch in the whole coven that everyone had rejected and the right-hand witch to High Priest and Priestess Kensington. She was my rival in everything, and I always knew she hated me, I just wasn’t sure how low she would stoop to have a child and get back at me. I was so … shocked and hurt.”

“But,” squinting her eyes, she replays the information in her head, “how could she have used magic that skews your vision but not moms?”

“I’ve researched it,” the glaze fades from his eyes as he blinks. Turning, he gives a strained smile and says, “demon magic.”

“That’s forbidden,” she says, shock evident in her tone. “I mean, the coven teaches us, but I know better than most witches that since the Salem event, demon magic and demon deals are taboo.”

“I know,” he places a hand on her shoulder to calm her down, “and, see, I could never prove it. After that night, your mother said she couldn’t handle this coven and me; she said she needed to take some time. I chased her all the way to the village entrance on the west side, but she shifted into her animal form, and I couldn’t keep up,” by this point, his eyes are glassy, “she was gone before I could catch her.”

“Demon magic,” resting a finger on her lips, she thinks for a minute before tapping her lips. “That would explain the feeling I get from the boarded-up room, some sort of demon magic that’s lingered all these years. That would have to be _really_ powerful magic.”

“You feel it too? I was told I was crazy,” he laughs, a tired breath, “told by everyone in the coven that I was just emotional. That’s why I couldn’t stay in there anymore; most of her things are still in there actually. I can’t bring myself to throw anything away; maybe someday I can try a tracking spell to find her with them; at least that’s what I tell myself, but I’ve got too much to do here to actually of it.”

“You really love her,” she smiles up at him, “don’t you?”

“I do, with all my heart. I mean, she gave me you after all,” he turns with a bright full-toothed smile. “I’m positive she’s out there somewhere, and someday I’m gonna find her again.”

“Your love is inspirational,” she says, leaning over to rest her head on his shoulder. He reciprocates immediately by wrapping his arm around her, pulling her close.

He gives a kiss on the head, smiling. Then he quietly asks, “is it inspirational enough to get you to stop getting detention on an almost daily basis?”

“Dad, we were having a moment,” she groans, kicking her legs out and shoving away from him.

“I know,” he laughs, throwing his arms up, “and I decide to swing back to the original conversation from earlier.”

Rolling her eyes, she stands up from the couch. “You’re lucky I love you, dad.”

“I mean it, though! I’ll stop by to check and make sure you stayed after my last class,” he says.

She manages not to roll her eyes again, but instead, she turns towards the back rooms. “I’m going to do my homework and avoid this conversation,” she states, making her way to her room.

“That’s okay we still have dinner to discuss it!” He calls after her, laughing to himself.

True to his word, the next day, Lauren finds him and Mr. Lewis waiting for her when she arrives in detention after demonology. Once he’s sure she’s not going to try and get out of it, he leaves her to Mr. Lewis. The detention is long and grueling, involving a long lecture about rank in a coven and then the proper care of magical creatures. She pats herself on the back silently for not stepping on his toes and correcting every mistake that comes out of his mouth.

By the end of the hour-long detention, she’s more exhausted than ever and grateful her homework load is light. 

The exhaustion mounts to the point where she plans on falling face-first into her bed, and not moving until dinner. Those plans are derailed, though, as soon as she walks through the front door. Once she steps in and closes the door, she’s met by her frantic father.

“Lauren, you’re home perfect,” he stumbles through the living room suitcase in hand as he waves around an envelope in the other. “I finally got it!”

“Got what?” she asks hesitantly, holding her satchel strap tightly as her eyes flick back and forth from his hand to his face.

“A letter,” he takes a second to catch his breath, grinning. “I received a letter from The High Coven, they’ve made an appointment for me with The High Council.”


	3. Chapter Two: Everything Changes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song(s): “Booster” by Stray Kids, “fine” by Mike Shinoda, “How It Feels to Be Lost” by Sleeping with Sirens

Lauren stands in the entryway staring at her father as he bounces around the living room. The words’ High Coven’ and ‘High Council’ take a minute to register, but once they do, she blinks back into reality and steps forward.

“We haven’t had any real contact with The High Coven in decades,” she says, “can I see the letter?”

Holding the envelope behind his back, he sets the suitcase down on the conch. “High Coven letters and messages are supposed to be between them and the receiver only.”

“They didn’t teach us much about The High Coven, in class,” she walks over to the couch and sits beside the suitcase.

With a wave of his hand, his clothes and belongings float out of his room, down the hallway, and into the suitcase. As they fold themselves neatly, he pulls the envelope from behind his back, grinning. “Well, the way I was taught is that they work in mysterious ways, and they’re always cryptic. They only interfere with a coven if they need to. Otherwise, the coven will never hear from them.”

Tilting her head, she asks, “so why exactly did they contact you? Like, I know you’ve been asking High Priest Kensington for an audience with The High Coven since I was a teen, but why?”

“Your mother,” he shrugs his shoulders, pulling out the letter and unfolding it. “I have a feeling this coven has some corrupt figures in it, namely High Priestess Kensington and her right hand.”

That piques her interest. Pulling her satchel onto her lap, she wraps her arms around it as she leans forward, trying to get a glimpse of the paper. Before she can pick out any words from the back of the letter, he folds it back up and sticks it in the envelope.

“So, where’s the evidence?” she asks.

“Oh, I’ve kept it in my room,” he snaps his fingers, and a coat hanging by the door flies over, slipping onto his arms, “out of your sight. You have my curiosity, sometimes it’s not good for you.”

She smiles and nods. “Fair, can’t fight you on that one. What can you tell me then?”

“I’ll be gone for a week or so,” he says, double-checking all the items in the suitcase before closing it and placing the envelope in the inside pocket of his coat. “They sent me a train ticket and a second letter with their location,” he gestures to another envelope that now sits atop the suitcase. “The second letter reads ‘do not open until on the train.’”

The letter is lying on its front, showcasing the official gold seal and red lettering staying ‘HIGH COVEN OFFICAL’ across the sealed edges. The silver wax seal in the center has the letters’ MK’ pressed into it, which are flanked by leaf steam imprints. She can’t deny that it looks official in all regards, but something about the look of the pristine envelope makes her gut twist.

Her head slowly tilts to the side as her eyes and nose scrunch in confusion. “Dad, that seems a bit odd, though, right?”

Again, he shrugs. “They probably don’t want their location to get out; they even said, come alone.”

“Dad,” she stresses, “that’s really odd and out of character for what little I’ve heard about The High Coven.”

Shaking his head, he places his hands on his hips, leveling her with a sharp look. “Honey, I love you, but this is way out of your element, and all you have to do is trust The High Coven.”

Even though she doesn’t agree with him, she nods her head.

As he turns away and walks back down the hall to make sure everything is in place, Lauren retreats into her mind. She stares down at the envelope next to her, knowing that she hasn’t spent enough time around magic to know precisely what she feels stirring inside, but she knows it isn’t good magic.

Sighing, she forces herself to stand up and walk away, heading to her room to work on classwork.

It’s not long later that she stands back in the living room with her father. This time he’s all packed up with his suitcase in one hand and the other held out for her.

“You leave tonight? Isn’t that very sudden?” she’s still wary, the worry ever-present in her voice.

Rolling his eyes, her father repeats himself, “they want to see me ASAP and are worried I might be followed if I wait too long. Look, the train arrives shortly, so we have to go.”

Before she can fight back anymore, he grabs her arm, skin-to-skin, and teleports them.

Teleportation is naturally very disorienting for those who do not specialize in it, but being unprepared for teleportation can throw any witch entirely off-balance. When they reach their destination, a small parking lot mostly surround by trees. Lauren falls to her knees, gasping for breath.

“Dad!”

“Sorry,” he says, holding back a laugh, “but we needed to go, now come on.”

Once he helps her back onto her feet, they walk to the sidewalk and up a block to the train station. She doesn’t speak until they’re on the platform.

She chooses her words carefully, planning them out before speaking up. “Dad, I know I don’t know much, but you taught me to trust my instinct,” she waits for him to hum in agreement. “Well, right now, my instinct is telling me that,” she points to the second envelope that he holds close to his chest, “that is not good. Something is very wrong with this.”

At first, he doesn’t respond, he simply hums without looking away from the tracks.

The silence between them in stiff, and she thinks she may have actually crossed a line this time. They stay this way for a few minutes more, and just as the train is in sight, he finally turns to her.

“I know I told you to trust your instinct, but,” he pauses, looking at her with a sad smile, “I honestly worry that you not having a specialty makes you susceptible to delusion.”

Confused, she opens her mouth to refute his statement.

“No,” he cuts her off, shaking his head, “High Priest Kensington has talked to me about it. How not having one specialty or two and studying everything like you do can make you dangerous.”

She stands there frozen as the train rolls into the platform.

“For this,” he shakes the envelope, “I have to trust my instinct.”

Although she wants to press the matter and ask where the High Priest is getting this information from, she’s too stunned. Even though she wasn’t physically slapped, this sudden information is jarring enough to feel as such. All she does is nod her head while closing her mouth in a tight line.

Reaching over, he pats her head with a smile. “I love you more than my life. I promise I’ll be back sooner than you know it, and while I’m gone, just spend some time thinking about a specialty or two.”

“Okay,” her voice has weakened, along with her will, and she keeps her eyes downcast.

“Good,” he gives a tight smile while leaning down to kiss her head. “I love you.”

“I love you too, dad.”

With those parting words, she steps back, and he steps forward. As she places her fingertips to her lips, she wraps an arm around her waist and walks over to sit on one of the benches. She can easily make a portal to go home, but she doesn’t. There’s a voice in her head that tells her to stay and wait, so she does.

It takes a few minutes more for the humans to board the train, and then a little longer for the train to begin its journey. Somewhere during that time, Lauren’s finger found their way into her mouth; she bites on them as she watches the train picks up speed out of the station. She pulls herself up to her feet as it rolls away, walking to the edge of the platform to watch.

That uncertainty and worry twist in her gut, growing in intensity until there’s a flash of light from one of the train car windows.

At first, it’s quiet, then it’s too loud.

She has a moment to realize that she didn’t see where her father chose to sit before the train car explodes. As if a bomb was detonated, the windows and doors blow out, the ground shakes, and fire and smoke burst from the cabin with a ferocity only matched by hellfire. The shockwave derails the last few train cars, sending them skidding into the road just beside the tracks. The fiery car stays attached as the screech of the breaks brings the train to a slow halt.

Once the train lies still, the fire still crackling into the air, Lauren moves into action.

Sirens can be heard in the distance, police, and fire trucks, making their way to the wreckage. People from the other, intact train cars slowly make their way out, helping others in the flipped cars and good Samaritans rush over to help the injured. Lauren joins the group pulling people out of the cars beside the burning one. The heat of the fire is almost unbearable, and the intensity of it reminds her of her demonology lessons on the raw energy of hellfire in the physical world.

With every person pulled from the wreckage, she checks each and every face, looking for her father. Before she can turn back to the fire, the firefighters arrive, and a policeman seizes her arm. 

“You need to move back,” the man declares as he moves her to join the rest of the survivors.

“My father might be in there,” she fights his hold, looking back at the where the firefighters are now spraying down the flames. “I can’t find him–”

Another explosion from the train car sends them both to the ground. Thick, black smoke billows into the air, darkening the sky above them.

Lauren is too stunned to move, stare fixed on the melting metal and fire. Pieces of ash fall from the sky, some pieces of paper still on fire float down around the carnage. One piece falls from the sky at her feet. At first, she pays it no mind, but the sunlight shining through the smoke catches it, and the flash of silver forces her eyes to look down. There at her feet lays a piece of the envelope her father had, charred, but miraculously intact. She moves so she’s kneeling on the ground and reaches out to grab the piece noting that the seal is still intact as her shaking hands lift it from the ground.

The magic coming off the unmarred seal stings her fingertips. The twisting in her gut she felt when she saw the letter returns tenfold, and she understands why now.

This was magic. Powerful and forbidden magic.

Behind her, the policeman stands up and finds a few of the train’s crew. He begins asking them about the train car in question as Lauren pulls herself up to her feet.

“There was only one man in that car,” one of the train crewmen states, “I can’t remember his name.”

“Was he on the platform with this woman?” The policeman pulls her attention back to the present, he reaches out to gently grab her arm.

The crewman peers over to her. There’s a tense moment as he looks her over, she holds her breath. Then he nods his head.

“My father was in that train car?”

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the crewman gives a solemn nod, “he was.”

All the air disappears from her lungs; she breaths out in shock, standing, frozen. Clutching the seal in a fist, she blinks a couple of times while looking around. Tears begin to build in her eyes, clouding her vision as she opens her mouth. No words come out. Snapping her mouth shut, she takes in a long breath of air in through her nose, before letting it out in a shaky tone. Blinking faster, she shakes her head and squeezes her eyes closed.

“No,” she raises a hand, holding it before her face as she looks off to the side, clenching it into a fist as it starts to shake. She shakes her head again.

When she opens her mouth to try and speak, a garbled cry comes out, and the tears break. The policeman reaches out for her, but she steps back, covering her mouth as the tears roll down her cheeks. At first, she turns away from the crowd of people, but then she’s faced with the wreckage of the train as the firefighters work tirelessly to put out the flames. Her gut twists in both pain and nausea.

The fear, the pain, and the panic take over, and she turns again. Ignoring the calls of the crew and police, she shoves her way through the crowd. All the noise fades into static as she rushes down the road, her legs carrying her away from the wreckage, the train station, and the town. Before she even realizes what’s happening, she’s in the trees, hidden from peering eyes, and her emotional distress forces her into a shift.

One minute she’s running on two legs, the next she’s running on four paws. There’s still water in her eyes, but her smaller form allows her to run faster and hide in the woods.

Her fox form barrels through the woods like a copper blur, not stopping even when racing across backroads. It isn’t until she’s faced with the highway that she skids to a halt, jumping back and ducking into the bushes as her body shakes from head to tail. She curls her bushy tail over her paws as she hunkers down.

It takes a good while for her to muster enough control over her magic to shift back to her human form. Once she’s shifted successfully, she stays on the ground, hands gripping the dirt beneath them as she tries to catch her breath. The tears are still falling, blurring her vision as they stick to her lashes.

_Dad’s dead._

Those words are the only thing in her head, repeating over and over again. She shakes her head and carefully pushes herself up to her knees. A stinging pain on rips her from the mantra in her head, and she looks down to find her jeans torn, gashes open below them where the dirt is soaking up her blood. It pulls her out of her head long enough for her to raise her hands and create a portal, then struggles up to her feet and falls through.

As soon as her knees land on the carpet of her own room, the tragedy takes over, and her body is wracked with heavy sobs as she cries, gasping for air and clutching her heart. The scene replays in her head, the crewman’s words repeating in the background. Even closing her eyes doesn’t erase the violent images from her mind.

Slowly, she sits, crawling until her back rests against a wall, then she wraps her alarms around her knees and cries harder.

It’s a long while before she can do anything but cry in the dark of her room. Her emotions are strong enough to wilt the few stray plants in her room, crushing them under her own agony.

Hours pass, and the tears dry up. There’s a dull ache in her chest and severe pain in her stomach. Even though her limbs are stiff from holding herself together, she has a fleeting thought that pulls another tear from her bloodshot eyes.

“I need to inform the coven,” the words are hoarse, weak. A rough cough is all she can muster for a few more minutes.

Eventually, she manages to unlock her limbs and pull herself to her feet. Shuffling through the dark, she makes her way out of her home. Upon reaching the front steps, she pauses to look up, feeling the moon’s light on her.

The full moon casts a soft blue glow over the village. It’s a soothing touch, but the ache and the pain still win out. She takes a second to close her eyes and soak up the light before continuing on her way towards their main hall.

The main hall is where all official coven business takes place, and where High Priest and High Priestess Kensington live. It’s the second tallest two-floor structure in the village. Black spires point towards the dark blue sky, and the warm glow of lantern light emits form most of the windows. There’s a large stone staircase that leads up to the two hearty oak doors. In most situations, witches are required to use the bronze knockers to announce their business, but in dire situations like this, most witches just let themselves in.

As soon as the door closes behind Lauren, the sound resonating throughout the building, a coven member emerges from a room off to her left.

“Muldoon?” The witch says, glancing behind her once. “What is the dire emergency?”

“I need to see High Priest Kensington,” is all she says, her voice giving away her distressed emotional state.

Sensing her energy, the witch nods once and beckons her to follow him down the hallway. They walk for a short bit before the witch pulls open an office door and steps in.

“High Priest Kensington, we have a dire emergency with Lauren Muldoon,” he ushers her in to stand beside him before he gives a short bow and leaves.

Sitting at an ornate desk is a tall witch with shocking grey hair and cold blue eyes. His skin is sickly pale, so white it’s unnerving in the dim light the lanterns give off. He doesn’t look up at first, focused on reading over an old, worn, leather-bound book. Lauren stands there, hands clenched tightly in front of herself as she waits for him to address her. The room is still for a minute more before the High Priest places a bookmark into the book and closes it.

“Lauren,” he says, voice loud in the small space, “what bring you here at such a late hour?”

“I have some,” she pauses, taking in a shaky breath and blinking back fresh tears, “news that will affect this coven.”

When she hesitates to speak, the High Priest waves his hand impatiently for her to continue.

“My father has just been killed,” her voice is tight as she holds back another wave of sadness, “he was on his way to see the High Coven and the train he boarded blew up.”

“Ah!” Realization dawns on Kensington’s face, he leans back with a hand over his mouth. “The letter I delivered to him this afternoon, yes, I remember. And you say he was killed? Don’t you mean he died?”

Lauren shakes her head, “no, this whole situation was so weird, and I may be emotional right now,” she reaches up to wipe her eyes clear of tears, clutching the seal still in the other. “I’m emotional, but I know this wasn’t an accident.”

He hums, nodding his head. “Well, I’m very sorry for your loss. This isn’t going to sit well with the coven. You said it was a train explosion?”

As she nods her head, he moves his book aside and grabs a stack of papers.

“Okay,” he looks at her as he takes a pen, “so that sounds like a mundane, human accident.”

“The letter he received,” she continues to explain, “it was strange, and it doesn’t feel good. I felt the letter had dark intentions.”

Kensington recoils at that. Pen halting before the paper as he settles a glare on her.

“I’m sorry, but it almost sounds like you are accusing the High Coven of,” he pauses, “murder?”

“Well,” she hesitates, fear gripping her at the intensity of his stare, “yes, but no. I’m not sure if the letter even came from them!”

“I can assure you, the High Coven did send that letter, and they did not blow up a train. I will have to inform them as soon as possible about your father’s tragedy,” sighing, he jots down a few notes on the paper before him. “As for the cause of death, are you sure it wasn’t you who cause the explosion?”

“Um, what?” She tilts her head, eyes turning to look downward. “I’m sorry, sir, but how could I have caused it?”

“Let me explain,” he places his open down, folding his hands together. “Recent research has shown that when a witch does not pick a specialty by the time their basic schooling is finished, they slowly become more and more volatile and their magic more unstable.”

Her father’s words come back to her as she curls an arm around her waist and looks away from Kensington’s piercing gaze.

“You never even considered picking one form what your teachers say,” he turns to the side, reaching down to open a drawer, pulling out a file folder. “I was just explaining this to your father earlier this week. You are the only coven member who hasn’t picked a specialty, which makes you dangerous and volatile.”

Shaking her head, she tries to comprehend how her simple magic could be volatile. In her heart, she knows that elemental magic – especially that involving fire – is not her expertise. As well, she knows hellfire isn’t something even Damien, an elemental specialist, could not conjure.

“Sir, with all due respect, the magic I felt coming from the train was much darker in nature than any magic I can conjure.”

“Darker?” He lays the file out in front of him, opening it to look inside. “Well, you are very interested in demonology these last few years. It could be your specialty shining through.”

“Sir,” she raises her voice, dropping her arm as she steps forward. “I’m trying to be serious, I understand I need to pick a specialty, but there’s no way I could conjure pure hellfire.”

The silence that follows this statement is bone-chilling.

Lauren gauges his reaction, seeing something close to shock flicker on his face before he grins.

“Well, that poses a dangerous issue,” he chuckles to himself before patting the desk. “You are on house arrest until we get to the bottom of this.”

“Wait, what?” The sudden shifts in tone causes her mind to freeze.

“You heard me,” he snaps his fingers, and the door behind her opens, “house arrest. We’ll look into the situation tomorrow, but for now, go home and stay home.”

Before she can do anything else, a pair of witches enter the room and seize her. As she’s being escorted out, she vaguely hears the High Priestess call out her husband’s name from the main staircase, and him reassuring her that nothing is wrong as Lauren is swept off into the night.

With nowhere else to go, and two guards posted at her back and front doors, she turns in for the night. The emotions and stress and loss finally catch up to her, sending her into a deep dark sleep.

When the sun rises the next day, Lauren finds herself in a new world. She’s first greeted by shouts from outside her home, seeing members of her own coven cursing her out for killing her father, which sends her into a panicked hiding state. She manages to close all the blinds and curtains to keep out any coven members coming to get a look at her. At one point, she manages to get information from one of the witches standing guard, but all he says is that she would have to speak to her half-sister.

It isn’t until the sun reaches its peak that Damien sneaks his way into her house, finding her in her living room, glaring down at the wax seal from her father’s letter.

“So, your sister says you killed your father,” is how he announces his presence.

Lauren’s neck pops as she quickly looks up. “that’s what’s going on? I was told there would be an investigation.

Shrugging, he walks over and sits next to her. “Supposedly, there was, and they found that your magic is too unstable, and your anger led to you killing your father. By accident or not, they have accused you and the coven kind of wants you hanged.”

As chills race down her spine, she breathes out a shaky breath and says, “I bet that was my sister’s idea?”

Giving a nod, he offers her a strained smile. “If it’s any consolation, I don’t think you killed him.”

She eyes him skeptically.

“Seriously,” he places a hand over his heart, “honest to the High Coven. According to this fire elemental, I don’t think you have it in you.”

Her eyes narrow into a glare. “The fuck does that mean?”

“Don’t get defensive,” he laughs, reaching over to pat her head, “it just means that I don’t’ think you have enough hatred to produce fire. You strike as more of a nature and healing specialty witch, but right now, the coven won’t hear any arguments for you.”

“Great,” she draws the word out while rolling her eyes. “So, what now, I just sit here and wait to be hanged?”

“I mean,” he pauses, looks around, and then leans closer, “you could run away. I don’t think they’d honestly come after you.”

They stare at each other for a second in silence.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously. You could be one of those witches who starts their own coven! I think it would be cool.”

She takes a minute to think over the idea and promises Damien that she would think it over. He leaves not long after, giving her one last piece of advice before ducking out her back door.

“Make your decision fast, they plan to have your trial and sentence by tomorrow.”

Once left alone again, she finds her attention drawn back to the seal. Since the incident, she hasn’t let it out her site. It still buzzes with dark magic, but there inside her house, she slowly begins to feel something familiar calling to her. This feeling has steadily grown and grown until finally, she feels the seal’s magic pulling towards another room in the house. Looking over to the hallway, her eyes land on the boarded-up door to her mother’s room.

“No way,” she breathes out before moving towards the room.

With a quick flick of her wrist, the nails holding the boards in place slide out, sending both them and the boards clattering onto the floor. As soon as she pushes open the door, the stench of dark magic hits her like a shockwave. The seal in her hand buzzes in unison with the lingering dark magic that coats the room.

The room its self looks as if time forgot about it. Dense layers of gray dust coat every surface, the bed sits unmade, and there’s a stillness to the air that makes her feel as if she opened the door to another time. It’s almost peaceful, if not for the dark presence clouding the room.

“Of course,” with a strained laugh, she takes a cautious step into the room. “The same people who got mom to leave would be after dad, that makes a lot of sense. Maybe,” she wonders over to the open closet, looking at the dusty dresses that hang, unmoving, “maybe mom would know what to do. Ah,” she groans, walking over to the dresser where an old jewelry box sits, “I could track her, but I need the right spell and an object her essence attached to it.”

She takes a minute to look over the room, examining each object before moving back into the hallway. The next room she enters is her father’s. It takes her a second to open the door, finding her hand shaking over the handle as she’s hit with a flashback realization that he is not long in this world. Tears begin to form, and she desperately blinks them away while grasping the door handle and pushing it open.

Compared to her mother’s room, her father’s room is in pristine condition. Tidy to an alarming degree. The only furniture pieces in the room as a bed and a desk covered in papers and clippings. She moves straight for the desk as she recalls that her father’s evidence is here. Pulling out the chair, she sits herself down and lays the seal in an empty spot before beginning to sift through the mess.

Most of the papers are handwritten notes, scribbled out in messy haste to get thoughts out of his head. Others are official documents and papers form the coven. Some are even neatly written letters lamenting his loss of love, some detailed descriptions of events in his life. There’s no organization to the mess, and all Lauren can pull from this is that the High Priestess may be responsible for her right hand’s actions in tricking her father.

As she begins to grow tired of reading, a bronze seal catches her eye, this one still attached to an old yellowing envelope. The seal is similar in nature to the one her father received, but the letters read ‘HC’ instead of ‘MK.’

“This is a High Coven letter,” she runs her finger along the ‘HIGH COVEN OFFICAL’ on the envelope, and then she looks at the seal again. “Wait a minute,” she grabs the seal from her father’s recent letter, ignoring the magic still coming off it, and places it next to the older seal.

Sitting side by side, the seals look almost identical, minus the different letters. She stares at them for a minute more before it clicks.

“High Coven. Kensington,” she taps the ‘MK’ and thinks for a minute more. “Michael, his first name is Michael. His full name is Michael Kensington. It’s not just the High Priestess that may be corrupt, it may all the Kensingtons and their associates.”

The pieces start to fall into place one by one, fitting perfectly together as she sifts through the papers once more. With this realized, she’s able to see that each neatly detailed document about events is the documentation for a case against her coven.

“Dad was trying to prove our coven was corrupt,” her shoulders drop as bile rises in her throat, “and they killed him for it.”


	4. Chapter Three: Runaway Witch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song(s): “How It Feels to Be Lost” by Sleeping with Sirens, “Leave It All Behind” by Sleeping with Sirens

The coven village is once again cast into shadows, and the sun is dragged down below the treetops. With the darkness of night comes the frigid temperatures. Lauren doesn’t bother to turn on the heater or start a fire to keep the house warm, she barely even lights any lanterns, just enough for her to see her way around. She had been visited by High Priest Kensington, who informed her of the trail to come the following day. When she tried to defend her story once more, he shut her down with a quick incantation that forced her into silence. 

That sealed her decision to leave.

The guard at her back door let her collect herbs and plants form the garden, under the guise that it would be getting too cold to properly keep them without magic. She silently thanks Mother Nature that neither guard is a nature specialist as she carefully extracts seeds from each plant to take. Although she hasn’t a clue as to where she is going to go, she knows that she needs to find the High Coven.

First, she needs to get away.

In her satchel, she collects everything she will need for the coming days: clothes, herbs, non-perishable food, books, and such. It’s times like these that she’s thankful for her first enchanting project in school: enchanting a bag to be larger on the inside. Ever since then, her satchel has been her trusty companion. Once she collects all her essentials from her room, she wonders over to her father’s room. Fighting back another wave of emotions, she gathers all his evidence into a single manila envelope, which she then places in her satchel.

As she does a once over through the house to make sure there’s nothing she’s forgetting, she tries to think of what she could use for a tracking spell.

Most of her mother’s things are too old to still hold traces of her magic or memory in them. The layers upon layers of dust that coat each object have dulled out the potential of being able to use them to track her. Since it’s been close to forty years, most of her magic trace has faded.

Stepping back into the old room, Lauren takes her time walking around and examining each item. She runs her hand over each piece, spending a few seconds gauging the magic left in each of them before moving on. 

“This is all so old,” she tries to stay calm, but the frustration makes both rage and sadness brim. “Nothing in here has been touched since that night, how am I–” she stops, eyes catching the jewelry box on one of the nightstands. “But that, that looks out of place.”

The difference is subtle, unnoticeable unless paying close attention. The last time she was in here, she hadn’t noticed, but the dust is thinner atop the jewelry box. With careful hands, she grasps the sides and pulls the lid open. 

Inside, there are two items: a single necklace and an old polaroid photo. The necklace is made of black leather with a metal pendant attached. The pendant is a triquetra with a fox lying inside the knot. The metal shines despite the lack of light in the room, vibrating with subtle energy or magic long since faded. The polaroid is faded, but she can still see the two figures holding each other tightly and knows who they are. She has only seen her mother in extremely faded photos, this is the first clear image she’s seen of her, and she understands why her father always spoke so much about how they looked alike.

Based on their condition, they haven’t been moved, and the box had been placed after her father had abandoned the room, but before he boarded it up.

Tears begin to form in her eyes as she realizes that she can’t even ask her father. The necklace is obviously her mother’s, but what other significance does it hold? Was it something she used to wear? Did her father give it to her? When is the photo from? Why are they so happy? How long did he wait to put these here, enshrined for eternity?

A way of grief crashes over her; she crumples into a crouched position, hand holding her steady on the edge of the nightstand as she cries helplessly. The wounds are still too fresh to even scab over, easily being torn open with one wrong movement. The pain too intense to ignore at the moment.

It takes her quite some time to get her bearings, eventually falling to her knees but staying in front of the nightstand. By the time the last rays of sunlight are just a hazy hue on the horizon line, she manages to pull herself together. Even though her legs are still shaky, she forces herself to stand back up, grab the photo and necklace, and leave the room. 

Pocking the necklace and gently placing the photo into her satchel, she moves to the living room and stops. 

A chill runs down her spine, causing her to curl her shoulders inward as she looks around. The air shifts and time seems to slow down as she realizes that this will be the last time she sees this house. The sadness returns as her misty eyes sweep over every surface, trying to implant it in her memory.

Memories, forty years’ worth of memories flash before her eyes. She never thought she’d leave the coven, no matter how horrible they treated her, this is her home – was her home, she tries to mentally correct. The tears begin to escape, sliding down the sides of her face; she forces herself to lift her heavy arms and open a portal.

With one last, longing look and a chocked sob, she leaves. 

The portal opens up on the bank of the river opposite her coven’s land. From her many trips to some major cities, she knows there isn’t a better way to get to Charlotte than on foot. A city full of humans is the last place the coven would come searching for her if they even do that.

It takes her one long day to hike her way across the countryside to Charlotte. She manages to hunt in her fox form and cook herself a good meal while camped out in a large woodland area before walking into the metropolis. The sun has long set by the time she reaches her destination, so she scrounges up some cash from her satchel and buys herself a cheap motel room. Once safely inside for the night, she lets her emotions out, and then the exhaustion takes hold.

In the morning, she buys herself a map of North Carolina and plants herself in a dinner. As she eats breakfast, she scratches out coven land markers on the map, looking for a gray area between coven land where she can walk through or hide in. She knows she doesn’t have an exact destination until she can perform a tracking spell. 

Pulling the necklace from her pocket, she spins it around in her hands. 

She resolves herself to the fact that she needs to find somewhere in the mountains. Somewhere where she can gather the proper ingredients for a tracking spell, and that she shouldn’t leave the state until she has a clear idea of where she should be heading. 

She spends one more night at the motel, trying to catch up on as much sleep as she can before venturing off again.

With the map in hand, she continues west, heading up towards an unclaimed piece of wilderness with no covens in close range: Nantahala National Forest. It rests on the border between North Caroline, South Caroline, and Alabama. While many covens inhabit these states, there are few located within close distance to the center point that the three states meet. As she hikes and buses her way towards the forest, she does some quick research on her cell phone, which she rarely uses, to pick a town that will prove as a safe hiding ground. 

On her second day of travel, while sitting in a truck stop restaurant, she chooses the tiny town of Highlands, North Caroline. She then begins the final leg of her journey.

By the time she actually reaches Highlands, it’s been five days since she left her coven. She’s on foot, and the sun is rising gently over the treetops. The air is crisp, stinging with every breath she takes in. Her limbs are tired from the long hike, not even resting in her fox form can kill her fatigue. Soon enough, the forest breaks into the hustle and bustle of the quintessential small town, the main street is lined with shops, businesses, and little restaurants here and there. The air has a fresh, clean feel to it despite the cold, the breeze carries the scent of rain with the hint of the coming winter. 

As she strolls down the sidewalks, looking into different shops, she tries to think of how to find a place to stay. Hotels and motels would be too expensive given her father’s meager human savings, and buying or renting is out of the question unless she uses her magic, of course.

Coming towards the main intersection, a green building across the street catches her attention. The sign reads, “Sweet Treats Deli.” Before she can turn away, her stomach and hunger make themselves known. 

“Guess food comes before planning,” she laughs to herself as she turns and heads across the street.

The inside of the shop is more updated compared to the outside of the building. It’s clean and white with a slightly modern feel to the design, giving a little freshness to the mountain town. 

Lauren smiles to herself as she walks to the counter, ordering a couple of deli items to hold herself off until later.

Once she sits down and eats, she begins to ponder over how to find a place to stay. Lying isn’t something she is unfamiliar with. She knows she can make up a story about being a college student on a solo winter adventure looking for a place for a couple months, and no one would bat an eye. But, the question that stops her is, who she should ask?

Her train of thought is broken by the door of the parlor opening, a cool breeze and high-pitched laugh sweep in. Two men stroll inside, hand-in-hand, with matching smiles. The one who laughs with his head thrown back and a hand over his mouth, is the shorter of the two, with lavender hair that stands out against the white walls. His partner has a very drawing aura about him, his eyes sharp even as the crinkle from the wide smile taking over his face. They talk in light tones, voices low enough that she can’t discern what they’re saying. When they reach the counter, she hears the cashier greet them happily, which concludes that they’re locals.

The opportunity comes to her then. If she asks the cashier before she heads out, they may overhear and have some advice as well. With the plan set, she relaxes and finishes her food.

“Excuse me?” she approaches the counter, holding securely onto her satchel, flashing a charming smile. “I’m new in town, college winter adventure,” she pauses to laugh, “I wanted to find a place to stay that’s not the usual hotels, do you by chance know of anything in town?”

Humming, the cashier leans on the counter. “We have a few people who rent out renovated cabins, mostly for couples though. You traveling solo?”

She nods and says, “yeah, I wanted to spend some time by myself before I graduated.”

“That’s cool,” he flashes her a genuine smile before leaning to look over her shoulder, back towards the booths.

“Hey, love birds.”

The short one’s head perks up first, blinking in surprise. “What’s up?”

“This girl,” he juts a thumb at Lauren, “is looking for a non-hotel place to stay. Who’s the guy who just renovated all those cabins, I thought he was renting them out?”

“He is,” the taller speaks up this time. “What was his name? Charles? Christian?”

The other chews on his straw as he thinks, tilting his head. “No, wasn’t it,” he sits back and claps his hand, “Reilly! Chase Reilly.”

“Right!” The cashier nods his head and snatches up a pen and napkin. “He’s supposed to start renting this winter, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind starting early. Here’s his contact info.”

“Thank you guys so much,” she makes sure to flash them all a smile before taking the napkin. With a promise to see them around town, she slips out.

After a quick phone call, she pulls together a meeting at a small cabin just on the outskirts of the main town. Chase is eager to meet her, excited to show off the cabin, even bouncing on his feet as he approaches and greets her. He gives her a quick tour of the small space: one bedroom, one bathroom, and a simple living room kitchen combo. The back of the cabin is right on the edge of the forest, with a small fenced off backyard – just in case the renters have pets, he explains.

“So,” as he steps down the front steps, Chase asks, “what do you think of it?”

“It’s cute,” she admits, following him back to the front-drive. “Very secluded, like it’s nice it’s on a street but also nice that there aren’t many houses in this area.”

“There’s a few, but all these trees,” he makes a sweeping gesture towards the forest surrounding them, “really keep it private.”

“Okay, yeah,” biting her lip, she rolls up her sleeves and gives a shaky sigh. “I’ll rent out this cabin, but first.”

Before Chase can even question her, she steps forward, pushes herself to her tiptoes, and presses her hand against his forehead. Blue sparks jump from her fingertips to his head, shocking both of them and sending searing pain up her arm. Mustering all her energy and concentration, she speaks out a mind-altering incantation.

“Now, you know you are renting this house out to a young college student,” she begins, gritting her teeth through the pain. “You will not speak to her, you will only vaguely think about the fact that you are renting this cabin, but you won’t question why there is no money going into your account. You won’t even really remember me or these encounters in the near future. There’s nothing strange about the girl, she is just a college student having fun, and it’s nothing you need to worry about. You will now get back in your truck and go home, happy that you made your first rental deal,” she takes a deep breath and presses forward, sending another wave of sparks out of her hands as the man stumbles back a few steps.

As soon as she releases his forehead, the man blinks several times. While still in a daze, he turns back to his truck and proceeds to climb in and drive away.

It isn’t until the sound of the tires fades away that Lauren lets herself fall. Her knees slam into the ground, causing her more pain. 

“Fuck,” as her body begins to shake, she tries to catch her breath. “I forget how much mana and energy mind control incantations take.”

She stays there, trying to straighten her mental state for a good while before lifting herself up and heading inside. The first thing she does is dump her satchel on the couch and dig out a potion. 

“This is why you always keep a mana replenisher on hand,” grinning, she successfully pulls out the bottle and downs the crystal blue liquid in a quick swig.

While she waits for the potion to take effect, she empties her satchel and sets up her things around the house. She plans to spend at least a month or two hiding here before sneaking off in the dead of winter. No one in her coven is a winter animal such as herself, so she knows she’ll have the upper hand soon.

Once she feels strong enough, she proceeds to lay a simple glamor over the house, just in case, and then grabs her satchel, heading to the local store. Even though she has all the herbs she could need, regular food is still essential.

Knowing she’s safe, she actually relaxes enough to stroll through each aisle of the store leisurely. She stops in the tea section, looking through all the options and quietly judging the ones she knows are not pure herbal teas. Her eyes catch a honey tea on an upper shelf, just out of her reach.

With a huff, she wipes her hair from her face and tries to reach the top, failing. She manages to resist the urge to complain and groan, and simply tries again, placing a careful foot on the bottom shelf.

“Here, let me,” a sudden voice calls from her left.

Flinching back in surprise, she looks over to see a taller man reaching up to grab the tea she had been reaching for. As he grabs it for her, he flashes her a bright, blinding smile. The man is handsome, with shocking silver-white hair and soft, welcoming eyes. He’s dressed stylishly for the weather in a fancy fur-lined coat, causing him to stand out in the shabby store.

“Ah,” she blinks back to reality, “thank you.”

“You must be the new girl, right?” he raises an eyebrow at her, tilting his head. “College road trip?”

“I am,” she forces a pleasant laugh, playing the part, “I guess news spreads fast in a small town then, huh?”

“It does yeah,” he also gives a good-natured laugh while holding the tea out for her.

Grabbing the box, she pauses as their skin touches and his smile widens.

“It’s such a small town that most people just keep going and forget it was even here,” there’s an edge to his words, a tone that sets Lauren on edge.

Pulling her hand back, she carefully places the tea in the cart as she turns away and says, “well, I won’t be here for too long, just part of the winter. I probably won’t even be out of my cabin too much.”

Since her back is turned, she misses the pure shock on the man’s face. He takes a step back and stares at her for a good minute before speaking up again. “That’s fair, but I still think there’s nothing too special here,” he reaches forward once again, taking advantage of her shoes slipping slightly. He steadies her, touching her wrist as he states once more, “people usually move on and forget. There are many other mountain towns people can suddenly find themselves in.”

“Well,” she pulls away, “I’m sure I’ll forget once I leave, but I just need to rest for a couple weeks. I won’t be a hassle in the town. Now,” she turns away completely and begins down the aisle again, “I have to finish before the sun sets and the cold sinks in again. Thank you again.”

“No problem,” the man stands there, watching her leave with a nervous and shocked expression.

She returns to the cabin as the sun is beginning its final fall towards the horizon, giving her just enough light to start setting up a makeshift garden. Laying out a heatshield over a portion of the fenced area, she plants some of the herbs she had uprooted, watering each of them and pruning the leaves that didn’t survive the trip. She then calls it a day and crashes from exhaustion before the sun even fully sets.

Waking up in a warm house and soft bed is almost rejuvenating enough to spring her back into action. Still, the fatigue from the long journey kicks in shortly after breakfast. She instead, ends up reading over the books she packed.

Sometimes around mid-day, as she’s preparing to make a quick lunch before working in her garden, there’s a tentative knock on the door.

Upon hearing the sound, all her defenses surge up. It takes her a minute before she walks over to the door.

It’s a small town, she reminds herself, nothing dangerous is here.

Opening the door, she’s greeted by the friendliest face she’s seen yet. The man has soft features, wearing a classy sweater and jeans, which accent his height. His black hair is brushed down over his forehead, adding to the soft look of his face.

“Hi,” he greets, holding out his hand, “I’m Seonghwa, I live nearby, and I hear Chase made his first sale, so I wanted to thank you for being his first client.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” she shakes his hand, “my names Lauren. And you really don’t have to thank me, I just wanted to get off my campus for a while.”

“Understandable,” he laughs, then lifts his other hand, revealing a basket. “I baked some muffins and pastries for my roommates, and I had some extra, so I thought it would make a great welcome present.”

The gesture warms her heart, a feeling she hasn’t felt in a long time. This time when she smiles, it’s pure and soft as she takes the basket he offers. “You didn’t have to, this is too sweet.”

“We don’t get a lot of new people who stay here, so I thought,” he shrugs his shoulders, “why not. I don’t often get to give welcome gifts.”

“Well, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, I hope you enjoy it here,” he gives her a wave with both hands, flashing a full tooth smile before heading back down the street.

The warm feeling doesn’t leave her for the rest of the day. She allows herself to eat a couple muffins with her lunch, savoring the sweet treats. Her mind begins to wander back to her father, and the few times they were able to sit down and bake together, cookies being their main sweet of choice. Thinking of her father brings brand new tears to the equation, which she forces down.

In an attempt to stem her emotions, she picks up her gardening equipment and heads to the backyard to force her mind onto other tasks. Her plan works for the most part, but eventually, the tears break free.

As if sensing her distress, a snowy owl swoops down from the sky, seeming to take a break on the edge of the roof. It looks around before landing its yellow eyes on her.

“Hey friend,” she whispers, sniffling as she wipes at her eyes, “little early for you, it’s not quite snowing yet.”

The owl hoots, swooping down towards her garden. It lands next to it, sticking its beak out towards the herbs.

“Hey!” she reaches out a hand, causing the owl to hoop backward, “don’t mess with these. They’re important. I need most of these for a tracking spell,” she pauses, hand hovering over one of the plants.

The owl tilts its head, spinning it sideways and staring directly at her.

She gives the bird a closed-lip smile and rests her hands in her lap. “I’m sure you aren’t here to hear a poor witch’s sob story about horrible covens and family tragedies. I won’t bore you, I promise.”

The owl gives a chirp in response, hopping around closer to her.

“I don’t have any lemmings or mice for you, but I do have these,” she leans over to pluck a few leaves off one of the plants. “I have some energizing herbs and a little fish inside if you wait here.”

Careful to not spook the owl, she pulls herself up to her feet and makes her way inside. She grabs a couple small pieces of salmon from the fridge and lays the leaves over each piece, placing them on a plate before returning to the owl, who has moved closer to her back door.

“Here you go,” she sets the plate down in front of the owl.

At first, it just eyes the food, but then it leans down and begins to slowly eat the fish.

Relaxing, Lauren sits down on the ground. “I may not be an animal specialty, but I think being a nature specialty is still pretty close. Nature and,” cutting back some more dead leaves, she hums, “something else. I’m still not sure yet, but I’ll figure it out.”

The odd pair sit in patterned silence. Occasionally, Lauren begins talking about little things from her travel, facts he knows about owls or facts she knows about herbs and plants. The owl eats the salmon happily, chirping every now and again. Lauren continues to plant herbs and water all of them while casting a few spells here and there. Once the owl finishes the fish, it shakes out its wings and takes flight. First, it lands on her roof again, giving a noise of appreciation before jumping and flying away.

“You’re welcome,” she calls after it, shaking her head. “I still have a way with animal’s that’s for sure.”

Looking up, she watches as he disappears into the trees, blending into the dark forest. It’s then she registers how late it is, the sun having already fallen behind the horizon, only a thin veil of light hugs the colorful treetops. 

Tomorrow she plans to figure it out more and make a solid plan, but for now, she packs up her things and heads inside to get more sleep.


	5. Chapter Four: Unofficial Coven

When people simply pass through Highlands, it seems just like any other small mountain town. Nothing unusual; nothing strange. Upon further inspection, though, something Lauren never fully mastered, there are faint traces of magic dusting the entire place. Hints of magic in the grocery store, a dusting of magic clinging to the deli parlor, and even just faint traces of glamours left behind even long after they’ve been broken. It’s all good magic though, the dark energy that Lauren has grown accustomed to is nowhere to be found, so all of this goes unnoticed.

Had she realized this, she would have sensed the magic trail leading to the opposite side of town. She would have felt the magic from a coven, one unregistered in the book, living off the grid.

This coven’s house is hidden by the forest, just off the main road but entirely covered and glamoured from human view. The gray panels give away nothing of the witches that live inside, and the glamour includes the front-drive where the coven members return to after a day of gold panning or relaxing in the city.

The day Lauren arrives, the coven leader, Hongjoong, was rudely interrupted from a stroll to gather ingredients for their healer, Seonghwa, by an enormous burst of magic coming from the city. Not realizing there is a new witch in town, his blood began to boil as he thought of the only two witches in his coven that had plans in town. So, he quickly made his way back to their home and stormed his way up their driveway.

Slamming open the front door, he stumbles inside, grumbling under his breath as he scratches his head, messing up his silver hair. He rips his scarf off, throwing it onto the dresser by the door while roughly kicking off his boots.

A distressed protest by Seonghwa comes from where he stands in the kitchen, located through the entryway to the left. He glares disapprovingly at the boots, now resting against the scuffed wall.

“Is there a reason you’re storming in like a child?” Seonghwa asks, setting down the plants he had been cutting.

From the couch in the living room area in front of the small kitchen, a bright blonde head of hair pops up, cautiously looking to Hongjoong.

“Where the hell are the huskies!?” Hongjoong shouts, tone edged with anger as he stomps into the living room, stopping short of the couch, scanning every inch of the open area.

“Yeosang said they left already,” Seonghwa answers, gaining a hum of affirmation from the witch mentioned lying across the couch, still cautiously looking at their leader. Noting the slight shake in Yeosang’s hand holding his book, Seonghwa sighs heavily. “What’s the big deal? And did you get my ingredients?”

Momentarily distracted, Hongjoong blinks and carefully pulls his backpack off. “I did, soon the natural growths are gonna end though, our big snow is coming,” he walks over to Seonghwa and sets the backpack on the counter. “As for the big deal, there was an enormous amount of magic used in the city, like a big burst of a darker magic.”

“Well, I’m sure they have a reason, and they will tell us when they get back. Now,” he takes Hongjoong by the shoulders, pushing him out of the kitchen and around to the couch, standing him in front of Yeosang as he sits up. “Calm down, I’ll make some tea, and apologize because you kinda scared the baby.”

“I’m not the baby,” Yeosang deadpans, turning his gaze to the book in his hands as he shuffles into the corner of the couch.

After Seonghwa makes Hongjoong sit in the now free space, he returns the kitchen and grabs the kettle, but keeps his watchful eye on them.

“I’m sorry,” Hongjoong runs a hand down his face before resting his elbows on his knees.

Yeosang shrugs, eyes not moving from his book. “You don’t often shout anymore, so I’m good. I’m also not the baby, Jongho’s the baby.”

“By age, yes. But by circumstance,” he smiles fondly at him, “you are.”

Getting shy and slightly red-faced under Hongjoong’s gaze, Yeosang shuffles a little and quietly says, “the lovebirds headed out a while ago. I’m sure they’ll be back soon. Yunho went for a run, the rabbit is sleeping, and I think Jongho went to do … something, I honestly wasn’t listening.”

Seonghwa snorts.

“Things never change,” Hongjoong pats Yeosang’s leg before tossing his head back and sinking into the couch.

Aside from the sound of Seonghwa’s cooking and Yeosang flipping pages, the house is quiet. Hongjoong takes this time to close his eyes and try and stem his annoyance and anger until the pair in question returns. Seonghwa forces a cup of hot tea into his hands, then another into Yeosang’s at some point during their wait. It’s a long while later when the pleasant silence is broken by a shift in the room’s air pleasure, causing a quiet popping sound as a breeze comes through from the foyer.

“Welcome home,” Seonghwa greets without looking up at the pair, now taking their shoes off in the entryway.

Before they can even flash a smile in greeting, Hongjoong is up and rounding the couch, storming up to them.

“What did you two do? I could feel your magic all the way from the mountains!” A growl follows his words as he jabs his finger at the pair.

San, the taller of the two, immediately steps forward to block Wooyoung from Hongjoong.

“Ya!” Wooyoung shouts back, “what’s with the sudden attack?”

San hums in agreement, glaring at his leader, “and what magic? We went on a lunch date, nothing magical about it.”

“It wasn’t even that romantic,” Wooyoung jests, earning a smack to his chest from San, which he laughs off.

“I’m serious, you two,” he crosses his arms over his chest. “There was a pulse of dark magic, strong dark magic coming from the town. Can you say with certainty that it was not you?”

“Yes!” they chorus, now looking wary.

The sound of a knife being placed on the counter breaks the trio from their bubble. Turning around, they watch as Seonghwa wipes his hands off on a towel before walking towards them.

“Hongjoong, you can’t just go around declaring it was dark magic,” Seonghwa’s voice is soft, holding a scolding tone. “They obviously didn’t do it, but are you sure it was dark magic?”

Hongjoong nods his head vigorously. “It was my type of magic, or something Mingi’s coven would have used. You two,” he gestures to San and Wooyoung, “know some spells from your upbringing, and I need you to clearly tell me you used no magic today.”

“None.” “Absolutely not!”

Sighing, Seonghwa bits his lip.

“Then,” Hongjoong breaths out, shoulders tensing, “that means we have a new witch in town. It’s been, what? A few years since any witch has been here?”

Yeosang hums, setting his book down as he stands up. “Yeah it was one of my coven witches,” he walks over to join the rest of them, “they wouldn’t be back though, they aren’t smart enough to know what you did.”

“Then, should we be concerned?” Seonghwa asks, stepping closer to Hongjoong.

“Maybe?” He scratches his head, turning to look at San and Wooyoung.

The pair are looking at each other, having a silent conversation.

Tilting his head, Hongjoong lifts a hand to wave at them. “What’s up?”

They look to Hongjoong, then back to each other. After a minute or two of them talking through gestures and facial expressions, San says, “but she couldn’t be. She looked so normal!”

“I’m sure we look normal to others,” Wooyoung counters.

San sighs.

Wooyoung turns to the group and explains. “We ran into this girl at our usual place. She was new in town looking for a place to stay.”

“Like a hotel?” Seonghwa asks.

San shakes his head. “No, like a place to rent for a while. She is staying in town.”

Yeosang lets out a long sigh.

“Give me all the information, who she went to, what she looks like, I’ll find her,” Hongjoong orders, voice having shifted down from the angry tone to a gentler one. “I’ll check to see if she’s a witch, and if she is, I’ll take care of her.”

Once they give Hongjoong all the information they could, he slips back into his boots and throws on his coat before sweeping out the front door. He makes his way through the woods around them towards the main town, keeping one hand at his side, palm open, to detect traces of unfamiliar magic. The town is at its height of activity with people filling the shops and restaurants. Even though the days are growing shorter, the town is still full of life.

It takes him a little while to find a trace of magic, getting only a faint hint around the deli at first. Eventually walks towards the main shops and picks up the trace of mana weaving through the streets. Following the trail, he stuffs his hands in his pockets.

The trail leads him to the grocery store, and once inside, the magic makes itself known floating through the air in a relaxed fashion.

Hongjoong takes a second to examine the store before locating the witch in question. Using all his feline abilities, he takes slow, quiet steps towards their location. He rounds the corner, then stops and watches the witch as she moves down the aisle.

Red hair, pretty, short, and this bright smile that lights up her face. All the boxes check off in his head. The magic coming off her is strong, so he nods his head and makes his way towards her.

The perfect opportunity strikes as he sees her reaching up towards a shelf she can’t possibly reach. Grinning, he swoops in and makes his move.

“Here, let me,” he says, reaching up past her to grab the tea she had been trying to grasp. When he turns to her, he flashes her a bright smile.

He prides himself as he watches her eyes take him, sensing her shock.

“Ah, thank you,” she finally says.

Situating his feet, so he stands taller, he asks, “you must be the new girl, right?” then he raises an eyebrow and tilts his head, aiming to look intimidating. “College road trip?”

“I am,” she laughs, “I guess news spreads fast in a small town then, huh?”

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he says with a laugh, “it does yeah,” before holding out the tea towards her.

Once her fingers touch his, he feels a surge of energy run through him as he smiles wider. Going in for the killing blow, he lets his natural magic run through him and prepare to cast one of his silent spells.

“It’s such a small town that most people just keep going and forget it was even here,” he repeats the same phrase he does every time, emphasizing the words to send them straight from her fingers to her mind. Grinning, he mentally prepares for the haze to take over her eyes and her body to go slack as the command takes over, but instead, she pulls her hand back.

As if a bucket of cold water was dropped on his head, Hongjoong freezes, and his eyes widen. Something akin to fear builds in his gut as he watches her place the tea in the cart. There’s a buzzing in his ears as he looks back and forth between her and his hand, so he misses her last remark as she walks away. He knows he responds, but he isn’t even sure what he said.

Snapping his fingers, he marches down the aisle and quickly locates a human standing on their own. Giving the area a once over, he deems it clear and approaches the man. Placing his hand on the man’s bare arm, he flashes him a smile that the man returns.

“Sorry to bother you, but you promised you would give me five dollars,” the lie slips out easily, and the magic runs through his veins once more.

The man’s eyes haze over as expected, and he gives a cheerful response before pulling out a five-dollar bill and handing it to Hongjoong. The relief he feels seeing his magic work as it should doesn’t quell the feeling the new witch brought forward.

He returns home in record time. Concern evident on his face, he tries not to let it show too much as he walks through the entryway and is greeted by all seven of his coven members. Each pair of curious eyes makes him more nervous, the hush that falls over the room sets him on edge as he rubs the back of his neck. Still unsure of how to explain what happened, Hongjoong finds himself retreating into his head as he thinks.

Seonghwa is the first to approach him, standing up from his spot beside Yeosang on the couch. Placing a hand on his arm is enough to pull him from his head.

Hongjoong looks to Seonghwa and says, “she was immune to my powers. How can a witch be immune to my powers?”

The air in the room grows tense as each coven member takes in the information presented.

Mingi, the tallest member with striking red hair, turns from his spot at the dining table to ask, “did she feel like a demon specialist? I worked up an immunity to your magic, but that’s only because we both study demonology.”

Hongjoong shakes his head. “Her natural magic is dark, but less like it’s meant to be and more like it’s tainted.”

“So similar to mine?” Yeosang raises a brow.

“Exactly, so that still wouldn’t make her immune to my magic,” he turns back to Seonghwa. “She could be dangerous, but I’m not sure what her affiliations are.”

It’s Yunho, the ever good-natured one, who voices his thoughts next. “Maybe we wait and see, examine her from afar. She doesn’t know we’re witches, right?”

Hongjoong hums and nods his head.

“That’s perfect then,” Yunho claps his hands, “we just watch her, study and see if she’s a threat. If she’s not, then we leave her be, ho harm. “

Seonghwa smiles. “I like that idea; I can do a health check and see if there is any dark magic inside her we should be concerned about. I think,” he ventures, trying to stem the fear he still senses in Hongjoong, “if she was here for us or to harm witches, she would have known what we are.”

The rest of the coven agrees with him.

“Come on,” he takes Hongjoong and walks him towards the kitchen, “you are going to drink a cup of hot tea, eat something, and then go sleep. As for the rest of you,” his gaze hardens as he looks over the rest, “don’t bother him and don’t worry too much about the witch, we’ll look after it.”

Wooyoung raises a hand in an ‘okay’ symbol as San makes a humming noise. Jongho, their youngest and strongest, snickers somewhere in the background.

“Alright, mom, you and dad got this!” Jongho cheers, giving them a thumbs up.

While Hongjoong laughs and swats at him as he passes, Seonghwa’s face turns red, and he quickly busies himself with fixing tea for everyone.

When the sun rises the next day, Seonghwa wakes up early and begins to bake a collection of muffins and pastries. Carefully, he weaves his magic and herbs into each one, creating his own perfect mixture of health tracking magic. Sitting beside all his baking equipment is a black tablet, which he checks every time he adds something new to the mix. 

The first person to join him is San, who plants himself down at the dining table, sleep still evident in his posture as he watches Seonghwa work.

After a while of silence, Seonghwa picks up a finished muffin and his tablet, joining San at the table.

“Be my test subject to make sure this is accurate,” Seonghwa says, setting the muffin in front of San.

He immediately perks up, sitting straight as he happily takes the muffin. “Free food from our best baker, why of course, I’ll eat it.”

Laughing, Seonghwa smiles fondly and shakes his head.

As San eats the muffin, humming in content, small notifications begin to appear on the tablet still in Seonghwa’s hands. Seonghwa lets out a sigh of relief as he opens the app for the notification, looking over the results coming in.

“It says you are still lacking the herbs I keep telling you to add to your food,” his tone is scolding as he glances towards him.

All San offers is a shrug, and a muttered, “they still make everything taste bad, so whatever.”

Seonghwa snorts and shakes his head, laying the tablet on the table as he rests his chin on his hand. “I’ll let it go for now, but it looks like all the updates went through, so that’s good.”

Holding a hand in front of his mouth, San says, “as for accuracy, my mana levels should be lower than usual. I Was up late with Wooyoung.”

Nose wrinkling in disgust, Seonghwa opens his mouth to protest that information when San quickly explains.

“No, not that, you freak,” he rolls his eyes. “This whole witch thing is really bugging him, so I stayed up with him until he fell asleep; used a bit of magic to help him fall asleep, so he’ll be out for most of the morning.”

Seonghwa relaxes, looking back to his tablet. “That’s good to hear. This new witch’s results won’t be as quick as yours, I’ll have to build her a profile on here to input her results.”

San nods his head. “Don’t you need a DNA sample to do that, though?”

“A simple handshake can take care of that,” Seonghwa waves a dismissive hand before pushing his chair back and standing up. “At least I know it works, tie to finish baking.”

“Breakfast?” San asks, putting on the best innocent face as he smiles up at Seonghwa.

At first, Seonghwa ignores him in favor of beginning a new mix for the muffins. San pouts, dropping his chin onto the table as he watches him. Not even having to turn around, Seonghwa knows what San is currently doing.

So, he says, “I am making everyone breakfast, you mopey pup, go back to your boyfriend, and leave me in peace.”

For the rest of the morning, Seonghwa stays in the kitchen, cooking breakfast for the coven and finishing up the basket of treats for the new witch. The coven slowly rises with the sun, coming out of their rooms in small waves until the house is alive with conversation and magic. Amid all the usual chaos of the coven’s day-to-day life, Seonghwa makes sure Hongjoong is alright looking after them while he heads off to visit the witch. Once he gets the okay, he takes the basket and sets off for town.

By this point, having felt her magic on Hongjoong, Seonghwa is easily able to find the trail and follow it to her home. At first, he stands across the street, examining the small cabin and the glamour she has laid over it. It’s not as intricate as Yeosang’s, but he does admit that it is impressive.

Walking up the front steps, he shifts the basket to be slightly behind his leg as he gently knocks on the door.

It takes a minute or two of silence before the doorknob twists and slowly opens to reveal a short red-haired witch. Seonghwa doesn’t take long to examine her, he just flashes her a smile as her eyes move over his features.

“Hi,” he holds out his hand in greeting, “I’m Seonghwa, I live nearby, and I hear Chase made his first sale, so I wanted to thank you for being his first client.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” she gives a tentative smile and shakes his hand. “My name’s Lauren. And you really don’t have to thank me, I just wanted to get off my campus for a while.”

“Understandable,” he gives a laugh before lifting the basket, holding it up where she can clearly see it. He pockets his hand, pressing it into a sheet of paper he has resting inside. “I baked some muffins and pastries for my roommates, and I had some extra, so I thought it would make a great welcome present.”

He feels a little bad for lying to her, as her aura underneath the dark coat is sweet and soft. This is clearly expressed as he sees her smile melt for a split second into shock and then reforms in a genuine smile. There’s a hint in her eyes that tears may come, but most people wouldn’t know.

Finally, she says, “you didn’t have to, this is too sweet,” as she takes the basket from him.

Smiling brighter, he says. “We don’t get a lot of new people who stay here, so I thought,” he shrugs his shoulders, “why not. I don’t often get to give welcome gifts.”

“Well, thank you,” she can’t seem to wipe the smile off her face, and it melts his heart a little.

“You’re welcome, I hope you enjoy it here,” he says, giving her a wave with both of his hands. Seeing her still looking so innocent and sweet, he flashes a full tooth smile before heading back down the road.

He thinks over his experience with her on his walk home, noting just how innocent seems under the darkness that seems to hang off her. From this, he can easily deduce that her coven is of a darker nature, possibly one of the ones they’re avoiding. Silently, he hopes that it won’t cause an issue for them in the future.

Upon returning home, after stopping at the store to pick up some things on his shopping list, he pulls Hongjoong aside. He explains what he did and that they have to wait at least a few hours for the results to come in on the tablet. It doesn’t bother Hongjoong through, and he tells him that it’s fine.

The coven spends the rest of their day like any other day. Seonghwa situates himself at the dining table. First, he inputs her DNA collected from her hand before setting aside the tablet and picking up the research papers he had collected recently from other coven’s. Taking this time, he reads over the documents to see if there have been any new findings in magic or the mix of technology and magic.

It’s around sunset when the notifications start to come in.

“Here we go,” Seonghwa pushes his papers aside and slides his tablet in front of him.

The first base results that come through simply stating her mundane health conditions. All the boxes read positive things. He quickly dismisses those and scrolls to the aura section, looking over her different levels. The dark magic they had felt was undoubtedly there, ever-present and prominent on the surface above her other, lighter aura, but it’s on top. As well, her aura levels aren’t low in their amount but extremely low in their power; she’s weak, and her power is waning.

Hongjoong is the first to realize what Seonghwa is looking at and plants himself in the chair beside him, peering down at the tablet. “What’s her verdict?”

“Very innocent,” Seonghwa hums, sliding the tablet closer to Hongjoong. “The dark aura is just a coating; it covers up an abundance of good magic. It’s a tough shell, though, and I think part of it is killing her magic.”

Sighing, Hongjoong scoots closer, reaching out to move the screen around and look at the results himself, causing a soft blush to rise to Seonghwa’s face despite his blank expression. “Why would her aura be so low power wise? From the looks of it, she has had a mana potion recently.”

“She did, but it looks like it only refilled it, not repowered it. Usually, we see these levels after major trauma or even during severe depression, similar to how we found Yeosang. It is,” he pauses, tapping his finger on the table, “how similar the two of them are. Where is he anyway?”

“Good question,” Hongjoong leans back, giving Seonghwa a chance to catch his breath, and looks around the room at the rest of the coven.

Both of them are well aware everyone has been quietly listening to them and waiting, so Hongjoong raises a brow as he waits for one to answer.

Clearing his throat, Jongho pipes up, “he went to go for a flight.”

Seonghwa makes a noise of understanding, clicking tongue. “So, he went to visit her.”

“I did,” the sliding glass door in front of the dining table opens; Yeosang steps in, shaking his hair out. “Just for a short bit, and I was in my animal form, so she had no idea.”

“Good,” Hongjoong relaxes.

Seonghwa asks, “what did you learn?”

“Oh,” Yeosang blinks before saying, “she is creating a tracking spell.   
She then mentioned a family tragedy.”

“That would explain why her power is so drained,” moving the tablet back towards himself, Seonghwa scrolls through the results again. “As a healer, I do not think she is any concern. I think she’s in more danger than anything, with how weak she is if anything came for her, she wouldn’t be able to fight.”

“Then we leave her be,” Hongjoong states, “maybe keep an eye on her, but other than that, we just leave her alone.” 


	6. Chapter Five: Alone; Together

Over the next few days, a thick layer of snow blankets the town. Lauren spends most of her time pruning and tending to the herbs needed for the spell, making sure to protect them from the snowfall, and the rest of her time is spent exploring the town. There’s a library in which she finds herself relaxing in often, taking her time reading both human books and her spell books as she continues to study different tracking spells. As well, she finds a handful of different restaurants and cafes that she spends her meager money in when she can, just to be around people and get out of her own head for a bit. Preparing for the tracking spell takes a lot more time than she had anticipated, especially setting up a small cauldron and pentagram. She has to take her time examining all the natural magic around her and gauging its levels to find the most balanced place inside the house to draw the pentagram. It ends up being in the living room, and she moves most of the furniture around until she finds the perfect spot to draw. All the while, her parent’s photo, and mother’s necklace lay on the counter where she can clearly see, a reminder of who this is all for.

It’s almost a week into her stay when she finally decides it may be best to try and contact Damien. While they aren’t the best of friends or even that close, he’s the only one in the coven who cares, and she knows he must be concerned for her.

Astral projection is still the easiest way witches communicate over long distances. Some have taken to modern technology, of course, opting to use phones when available, but her coven is far more old school. The setup is simple, a protection circle of candles and salt in a dark, silent room, still enough for the witch to cast themselves out of their body to another plane. Lauren hasn’t projected in a long time, so she takes extra precaution setting everything up correctly before she embarks on the task.

The moment she feels herself transfer from her body to the spiritual world is always an unpleasant one. The world turns dark, darker than the back of your eyelids, and cold seeps into your bones, aching. Ignoring these sensations can be hard, but she manages to push them away and narrow her focus down to Damien. Following his energy and presence, she quickly finds herself back in her coven land. The room she appears in upon opening her eyes is Damien’s room. Only a handful of times has she ever been allowed in the simplistic room, but even now it looks no different than before. A bed, a dresser, and a desk are all that occupy the space. At the desk sits Damien himself, he perks up as soon as he senses her presence and turns around.

“Lauren,” he flashes her a smile, one that seems off-kilter, “what are you doing here?”

She walks over to him. “I wanted to see what happened since I left, and let you know I was alright.”

It’s silent for a moment before he laughs, holding a hand over his mouth. He stares at Lauren in disbelief before laughing again. “Wait, wait a second,” he takes a minute to collect himself and then asks, “why would you want to let me know how you’re doing, or that you’re safe?”

Lauren blinks once, then tilts her head. “You are my friend? I just thought you’d want to know.”

A brak of laughter is his first response, then he shakes his head and drops his hand heavily on the table. “Sarah is going to get a kick out of this, oh wow,” he chuckles, still shaking his head. 

His behavior shocks her, and there’s a small tremor of worry growing as she waits for him to explain.

Once he stops shaking his head, he grins and looks at her. “I was never your friend.”

The words almost shock her enough to break her focus, her image wavers before him, flashing like a fading TV for a second before solidifying. There’s confusion and hurt dancing across her face as she takes a step back.

“Damien, what are you,” she lets out a breath, “what do you mean?”

“My mom,” he starts slowly, still grinning, “and the coven parents decided that you would be too volatile if left alone. Of course, no one wanted to be friends with the outcast’s daughter, but you being alone and hateful could be dangerous to the coven. So, I was paid to be friends with you.”

“Paid?” the word leaves a sour taste in her mouth as she says it, recoiling back and shaking her head.” That’s not … you were so nice all the time, you couldn’t have been -”

“Faking it? Oh, I was in the beginning for sure, but by the end, you believed my annoying teasing to hurt you was friendly banter,” that sings enough to make her step back again, “which made my life easier.”

No words come to her mind for a comeback, to refute this statement, because even to her, it makes sense. It hurts as much as a stab wound, but it does make sense.

“It’s funny, really,” he continues, turning back to his desk, “I’m the one in charge of the party hunting you down.”

Further startled, she takes a few quick steps back from him. “I’m sorry, the party in charge of hunting me down?”

“Yeah! We were kind of hoping that maybe getting rid of your dad would rid us of our problems, but then we go to collect his evidence to burn it and find it gone,” he turns back to her, “and who else could have found it but his meddlesome daughter.”

For a minute, she stands there opening and closing her mouth, eyes glazed over as she processes the information laid before her. The first words she can form are quiet, “I was right.”

Damien nods his head. “Yeah, you and your dad were onto us, and so you can understand why we’re hunting you down. As I was the closest to you and you opened up to me, I am in charge of finding you.”

That shocks her back into reality.

“And you just,” he pauses, waving his hand towards her form, “projected yourself right into my room. It isn’t easy to track astral forms, but I’m sure you won’t be a hard little kit to find.”

The uneasy feeling takes over, making her shiver as she looks at him. She can’t even recognize him, he seems like someone she’s never met before with a sinister smile and a glint in his eyes showing how much joy he’s taking in her fear. This isn’t Damien, or at least it isn’t the Damien she thought she knew.

“Did my friendship mean anything to you?”

“No,” he answers with no hesitation, “you were a paycheck, and you are a job, nothing more.”

Those are the words she parts on, feeling her power wane as tears brim in her eyes. The last thing she sees before being shoved back into her body is Damien’s smile grew wider as her tears fall.

The first feeling to hit her when she falls back into her own skin is a cold, empty, hollow sensation deep in her soul. Even with the candles still lit and the heater running, she feels as if the cold wind from outside had seeped in while she was away. For a good minute, all she can do is sit up numbly with tears pouring from her eyes. The emotions swirl around her, clouding her mind and drawing her deeper and deeper into a black hole.

She has absolutely no one left.

The realization sends her crashing back to reality with heavy, wet sobs. Curling her knees closer, she wraps her arms around them and pulls herself into a ball. In the back of her head, she knows she needs to leave the house and go somewhere in town so Damien can’t find her, but for a few minutes, she let herself cry and feel every negative emotion, drowning her and dampening her soul and magic.

After a while, she manages to pull herself together enough to stand up, collect her study material, and head out into the cold evening. The cold air shocks her system enough for her to stop crying and wipe the evidence away, even though anyone looking close enough could see her red nose and puffy eyes.

The numbness doesn’t leave her bones as she wanders around the town. The snow and cold don’t help ease any of the emotions clouding her mind, but she slips into a cafe and gets a tall order of hot chocolate before making her way to the library.

The library is lit by soft, warm lights, a blast of heat hits as soon as the doors are opened. It’s quiet and relaxed, only a handful of people are spread through the desks, computers, and shelves. Lauren immediately ventures towards the desks further back, where no one is likely to look at her books. Close to where she seats herself is a group of guys, all clustered around a handful of books as they quietly go over the material. She makes a silent note to possibly be on guard with her spell muttering and to make sure her books are concealed as she drops into the chair.

For a minute, she just sits there, then she takes out the spell books and lays them out before grabbing her notebook and pen, opening to the page she has been writing on. The page is full of detailed notes and scribbles, research from other tracking spells, and potions. Tapping the pencil on the page, she tries futility to focus on the material and not on Damien. Still, eventually there are teardrops on her notebook, and she has to furiously wipe her eyes with a shaking breath.

The scraping of the chair on the opposite side of the table shocks her out of her head.

While she was distracted, she didn’t notice one of the boys from the group get up - much to the group’s surprise - and walk over to the table.

Upon looking up, Lauren finds herself staring into the brown eyes of a smiling young man. He looks hesitant as he sits in the chair, folding his hands gently together on the table.

“Hi,” his voice is soft with a gravelly timbre.

Lauren responds on automatic with her own slow, “hi,” while blinking.

Smiling shyly, the man looks down for a second before focusing on her. “You look troubled and like you need to talk.”

“Oh,” that surprises her, causing her to sit back. “Is it that obvious?”

“A little,” he laughs, a breathy sound, “but I promise, it’s not too obvious. I’m just … very good at reading people, and I know - from experience - talking to strangers can be easier.”

She nods her head, tapping her pencil faster and biting her lip. The idea of dropping her sob story on this stranger doesn’t sit well with her, but she’s used to not talking about things.

Sensing her caution, the man continues to smile and quietly says, “I know it’s weird, but someone once did this for me,” he steals a glance over to the table of men, who Lauren now notices are all staring at them, “and it helped a lot.”

“That’s fair, but,” she trails off as the group of guys notice her looking and quickly turn away like startled deer.

“Don’t mind them,” he waves his hand, and for a second, she thinks she sees something, a mist or spark, come from his fingertips, but then his hands are folded back on the table. “They’re nosy.”

She laughs, genuinely, and smiles. “It’s not a big deal, really.”

He raises a brow. “You’re crying, so obviously it’s a big deal to you. Come on, lay it on me.”

With a sigh, she shifts and relaxes back into her chair. “Okay, so I’m sure you know I’m the new girl in town on a college vacation?”

He nods his head.

“Perfect, short backstory covered. Well, I’m not popular back home, and I really needed to get away, but I had this friend … he was the only one who liked me, but I,” she pauses for a split second, eyes flicking to the man and then his friends. Humans. Quickly shifting her train of thought, she replaces her witch vocabulary with human vocab and continues. “I called him to let him know I arrived fine and that I was okay, give him an update on the weather or some bullshit small talk. He was surprised to hear from me, like really surprised and then he asked if I thought we were friends. When I said yes, he laughed and told me we were never friends, and he was literally asked by our families to befriend me,” the last part is said in a rush, bringing more tears to her eyes. “My only friend, my childhood friend, and it turns out he was just faking it all these years, and now I have literally no one.”

At first, the man is silent, but his mouth is partially open from shock. She doesn’t look at him, afraid she’ll see pity or regret.

Eventually, there’s a pale hand in her view and soft fingers grasping her own.

“That’s shit,” are the first words he says, “complete shit. That guy? He’s an asshole, and you deserve better.”

Laughing, she reaches up her free hand to wipe away her tears. “You don’t even know me.”

He hums, “true, but I have this feeling that me and you are a lot alike. What I know,” he squeezes her hand, making her look up at him, “is that if I even meet this guy, what’s his name?”

“Damien.”

“Damien, if I ever meet Damien, I will punch him for you,” she laughs again, making him smile. “You’ll find better people, trust me. I came from a shitty situation too, and I found a great family.”

“Thank you,” the weight on her soul feels lighter, and the man’s smile brings a soft peace to her heart. “Honestly, you’re too kind.”

Smiling, he finally let’s go of her hand and goes to stand up, “of course, I hope you feel better. Maybe we’ll meet again at some point, but for now, take it easy?”

“I will,” nodding she looks down, but then quickly looks back up. “Wait! My name’s Lauren, can I at least get yours?”

He hesitates, moving some of his golden hair from his face as he glances at his friends. Stepping back to the table, he turns to her and whispers, “Yeosang.”

She repeats his name once with a smile before letting him turn away and walk back to his table. Feeling much better and more relaxed, she finally can entirely focus on her work, and she doesn’t notice the piercing stares of the rest of Yeosang’s group.

Yeosang strolls back to his coven, sitting down in his chair as if nothing happened as the other three at the table stare him down while stealing glances at Lauren.

“I’m sorry,” it’s Wooyoung, sitting across from Yeosang, who speaks up, raising his hand, “but what just happened?”

“Well,” on Wooyoung’s right, Yunho clears his throat, “our shy and very antisocial coven mate just walked up to a total stranger and comforted them. I’m not sure if I should be proud or concerned.”

“Concerned,” it’s San who’s across from Yunho that answers, “because that’s just like … Yeosang, what happened?”

Shrugging, Yeosang focuses back on their study material, uncapping his pen. “She looked distressed and sad, I couldn’t just leave her be. Simple.”

“No, no, no,” San shakes a finger at him, “you have ignored plenty of distressed humans and witches. Why her?”

Ignoring the question, Yeosang begins to read aloud from the age in front of him.

“Dude, no, you have to explain this!” Wooyoung hisses, causing Yunho to laugh as Yeosang just continues to read.

It’s a few minutes of Wooyoung trying to get Yeosnag to explain before he looks up, locking Wooyoung with a harsh stare.

“Wooyoung,” his tone is annoyed by this point, “focus on this study project, or I’m telling Hongjoong you broke his grandmother’s vase and not a stray bird.”

Wooyoung pales at that, quickly shrinking into his chair as he gestures for him to continue his lecture.

The story of Yeosang’s encounter and odd behavior makes its way back to the rest of the coven and prompts Seonghwa to keep an even closer eye on the stray witch as well as check to make sure Yeosang isn’t suffering from any illness.

Over the next few weeks, Seonghwa and Hongjoong keep a close eye on Lauren. Yeosang and her run into each other once or twice at the library, she runs into San and Wooyoung at the same dinner, but she doesn’t suspect anything other than small-town hospitality. It eases Hongjoong’s mind enough for him to relax because she is in no way a threat to his coven.

For Lauren, she tests a few different spells and potions over the weeks. Each and everyone fails miserably, scorch marks across the floorboards showcase her failed attempts, and the frizz of her hair denotes her stressed state of mind.

The snow builds and builds, locking the town in for the season. As the snow grows, so does the holiday spirit. The town becomes illuminated in lights and decorations, gearing up for the end of the year holiday rush. Thanksgiving comes faster than it has before, and despite it being a human holiday, most witches still celebrate it in their own way, unique to each coven.

Hongjoong’s coven simply has a large feast. Instead of just Seonghwa cooking, the whole coven takes part, and they play games and swap stories. It’s a day full of laughter and rambunctious energy that has to have an extra layer of glamours placed around the house to keep them unnoticed.

For Lauren, this celebration involved her and her father cooking together and spending a full day doing nothing back relaxing and watching movies together. The rest of the coven always looked down on them for not joining in the festivities, but it was their tradition.

This is her first thanksgiving alone, and the reminder of her father’s horrific death sends her into a spiral the few days before the holiday. She sits on the couch, wrapped in a blanket while her brain runs in circles. The images of the train are still fresh, and they surround her, dragging her back to that moment in time. In an almost catatonic state, she can only manage to eat, wander around the house, and cry for three days straight. To add to her poor mood, the spells aren’t working, and she knows her coven is coming for her. One part of her brain can’t help but think that she may not have much longer before she joins her father.

It’s a firm knocking on her front door early thanksgiving morning that finally breaks her out of her head.

Quickly wiping her face clean and running her fingers through her hair, she tries to look presentable. She contemplates throwing up a glamor but decides it isn’t necessary and hurries to the door as the knocking rings out again.

“Hold on,” she calls out while waving her fingers and unlocking the door.

The snow is still every present, and the bitter cold sweeps into the house as soon as the door opens. She shivers and pulls her arms close to her chest as she looks up to find the warm eyes of SEonghwa.

“Good morning, Lauren,” his voice is too chipper for the cold wind and early hour, but it brings a smile to her face.

“Ah, morning SEonghwa,” wrapping her arms tighter around her form, she leans on the door frame. “What brings you over?”

“Well,” he draws out the word while once again pulling a basket from behind his back, “it is thanksgiving, and I couldn’t help but think of you being alone on a holiday usually spent with family. So, I had some extra food - again - and I really didnt’ want you to feel alone.”

“You’re too generous,” she laughs, gladly taking the basket as he holds it out to her, “but I love this, thank you. It is weird being alone on the holidays, but I’m fine.”

Even though she flashes him a genuine smile, she knows she is very much, not okay.

“How do your roommates feel about you giving away food?” she jests lightheartedly.

Seonghwa laughs, grinning. “A pair of them love food more than each other, so let’s just not tell them I gave some away. I had to buy more supplies anyway, so it was a perfect excuse.”

“You really are too kind, thank you. Now go,” she waves her hand back towards the road, “quickly before it gets any colder. Your friends might be mad if you got sick on them, I can only guess you’re their cook.”

With a hearty laugh, he steps back and waves, saying, “I am, but on holidays they cook.”

He leaves after that, and she closes the door immediately, muttering a heating incantation to warm herself back up. She takes the food to the kitchen and places it on the counter before digging in.

The food is surprisingly still very warm, even the basket radiates heat, she almost questions this, but decides to not think about it today. Inside the basket is an assortment of bread, turkey, chicken, and fruit. It’s not a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but it’s enough to warm her heart again. She makes a mental note to do something for Seonghwa before she leaves town or if forced to leave.

Pausing, she sighs as the train of thoughts come back full steam, neverending.

“Just,” she sighs, “focus on this gift and be thankful that at least some people in this world aren’t trying to kill you. After today, I can start again on the spell, but for today let’s just breathe.”

It still takes her a while to fully relax, but with the help of warm home-cooked food and basic channels on the house’s tv, she finally feels calm. Her energies are leveled out, and she can feel her magic actually settle in her veins, not statically charged from stress and fear. It calms her enough to lull her into a deep sleep, one with no dreams and nothing but peaceful bliss. 


	7. Chapter Six: Lost & Found

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song(s): “Crossfire” by Stephen, “Oasis” by EXO

The morning following Thanksgiving is back to business as usual for the coven until Hongjoong’s loud, bellowing voice draws the entire coven’s attention to the scene playing out in their living room. As the members shuffle out of their rooms, they find Hongjoong and Seonghwa standing toe-to-toe. The shorter of the two is seething, so much so that sparks fly from his fingertips, and a dark red streak flashes through his eyes, all while Seonghwa stares him down with an unreadable expression.

“You not only took her food,” Hongjoong states, “but you drugged her food?!”

Seonghwa stands firm, arms crossed over his chest. “I did not drug her food in the way you’re taking it.”

“Oh,” scoffing, Hongjoong tosses his head back, “then please explain.”

“I cooked the food normally, nothing special. I topped it with a sprinkle of two crushed anti-anxiety pills, which I give to you,” he uncrosses his arms to jab a finger at him, “so no, I did not drug her food in a bad way.”

“And what,” his voice raises an octave, “possessed you to do this?”

He tilts his head, crossing his arms again. “Which part?”

“Seonghwa!”

“I didn’t want her to feel alone on Thanksgiving. She doesn’t have her coven, and I think we can see that she’s not in the best place mentally and she is no threat. Plus, look at her aura now,” he walks over the dining table and grabs his tablet. “Some dark magic I was concerned about has left. It looks as if the little boost I gave her let her real magic take control again. When she wakes up, she should feel better than she has in years.”

Hongjoong gives a heavy sigh, lifting the tension from the room as he shakes his head. “You care too much for stray witches.”

“Ah,” Seonghwa flushes and taps the side of the tablet while nodding. “I know, but if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have you,” he pauses, glancing away, “or the rest of this coven.”

“That’s fair, but promise me you’ll at least run it by me first as I am the coven head, deal?”

“Deal.”

Silence follows as Hongjoong sits down, leaving Seonghwa to stare at him for a long second more before walking into the kitchen.

“Are mom and dad done fighting?” Jongho calls from the hallway.

Hongjoong laughs, a carefree sound that brings a soft smile to Seonghwa’s face. “Yes, you baby, we’re done fighting.”

From around the corner comes the rest of the coven, having been piled up together listening. Yeosang, with book in hand, makes a beeline for the couch while San and Wooyoung slink up to the kitchen counter, giving Seonghwa a knowing stare. Mingi places himself next to Hongjoong at the table, gauging his reaction to Seonghwa’s news. “Are we going to ignore her then?” He asks, eyes fixed on Hongjoong.

Hongjoong nods. “While her magic is similar to the type we’ve dealt with before, it isn’t worrisome. She’s just a baby witch like us, so she probably doesn’t even realize her aura is an issue.”

Mingi smiles, satisfied with the answer.

San and Wooyoung tease and quietly poke fun of Seonghwa, but he makes them help clean up and cook with him to get them to shut up.

It’s a while later as all eight of them are situated around the dining room, eating and swapping stories that the air shifts. Mingi is the first to notice, back becoming rod straight as his eyes glaze over. Hongjoong notices next, seeing Mingi’s reaction and feeling the hair on his neck begin to stand. A loud knock resonates from their front door, causing the entire coven to fall silent.

No one moves. No one makes a noise. Everyone turns their attention to Hongjoong, waiting for their leader’s choice.

Slowly, Hongjoong pushes back from the dining table and walks to the door. The knocking continues as he approaches. He grabs the handle, turning it and motions for everyone to stay back before placing a finger to his lips as he turns to the door and pulls it open with a smile. “Yes?”

“Hello,” a young witch stands on the porch, sporting a forced smile, “sorry to barge in on your territory like this, but my coven is searching for a fugitive witch.”

“Really,” crossing his arms, he takes a step forward and leans on the door frame, “in this area?”

“We’ve been tracking her, and this was the last location. Her name is Lauren Muldoon, and she is a dangerous witch, here’s a picture,” the witch holds up an old looking photo, showing the witch Hongjoong had been arguing about, but he plays naïve and takes the photo to get a closer look.

“Her? She doesn’t look dangerous.”

“She’s a loose cannon, untapped dark magic we can’t control. We’ve tried to contain her, but she got the upper hand.”

Hongjoong raises a brow at the choice of words, looking at the witch.

The other witch pauses, biting his lip and shifting his feet. “She, uh, she killed her father and almost killed a few other innocent coven members.”

“And you know it was her?”

“Yes, she was the only one with her father and they had just had a fight. You see,” he slows his speech, smiling, “her dark magic comes out when she’s angry. Dark fire magic.”

Somehow, he manages to hold back a laugh. Murder? Dark magic? Seonghwa would have seen that in her aura for sure. “Well,” he passes the photo back, “my coven hasn’t seen her around here, and we do keep tabs on unknown faces. Plus, I don’t like accusatory covens who blame people without evidence,” the witch opens his mouth to protest, but Hongjoong reaches forward and grips his hand. “Now, my coven knows this town and everyone in it, we have never seen her and no one like her has been in our town. Your tracking must be off, and this town is no longer significant. Tell your scouts that.”

With a shove, the dazed witch stumbles off the porch and heads back down the driveway.

“Hongjoong!” Seonghwa rounds the corner, eyes wide, “if that’s her coven you gave yourself away. They specialize in dark magic! They’ll know a dark magic touch!”

“I know.”

“You know?!”

“Wooyoung, San, Mingi” he walks past Seonghwa to the living room as the three addressed jumps up from their seats, “go get Lauren.”

Across town, still hidden by her glamour, Lauren sits in the living room, once again testing a tracking spell. The spoon in the cauldron before her stirs the contents, the lavender liquid bubbling and popping. In her hands, she holds one of her many potion books, the rest scattered around the space, and in her lap sits her personal notebooks covered in chicken scratch notes and blacked out failures. With a groan, she lets the book slip from her fingers, fluttering to the ground.

“Work, work, work,” she repeats under her breath while picking up her mother’s necklace once more. Perching up on her knees, she takes the spoon from the cauldron and holds the necklace above. “With magic here to cast, seek what there is left to find, and show me the traces long since passed,” the necklace stops moving, holding a straight position as the potion boils and roll. It holds for longer than she expects, and then the necklace moves, swinging in a slow circle. Just as she thinks it is going to work, the necklace jerks to a stop and potion dies out with a puff of black smoke.

Even though she wants to scream out in frustration, all she can do is sink back onto her heels and sigh while dropping her hand.

“Attempt twenty-seven,” she grabs a pencil and looks to the notebook in her lap, “closer to complete, but still cannot give a direction. Actual movement achieved. Maybe too much sage, lavender amount seems fine.”

A silence falls as her hand halts its movement. She takes a deep breath and looks over her notes, flipping through the pages.

“I’m so close,” bringing the pencil to her lips, she bites down on the end, twirling it.

A sudden, heavy series of knocks shocks her focus away. She sets the notebook and pencil down, she stands up and walks to the door. She calls out to ask who it is as she fastens her mother’s necklace on her own neck and pulls open the font door.

The chill air cuts through the opening, sending chills down Lauren’s spine as she curls to stand partially behind the door, looking out. There on the front steps are two familiar faces, with one tall looming figure behind them.

“No time for formalities,” the shortest of the three says, “we’ve known you’re a witch. We are witches. We are a small ragtag coven, and your coven is after you. We are going to hide you, for a shot bit, and you are just going to have to trust us.”

“I,” stunned, she shakes her head and opens the door wider, “wait, hold up, there’s an entire coven in this town?”

He rolls his eyes and repeats, “small ragtag coven,” before pushing his way inside. “Mingi, I need you to make this place look like she left in a hurry. They’ll trace her here and we need to make it seem like she left already.”

The tall one follows him quickly, eyes examining every surface and item she has. Before she can even figure out what to do, the third man steps inside, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as he turns them to follow the others.

“Grab whatever you need that’s important, keep it small,” the short one says.

She shoves the one holding her and backs away from them towards the kitchen. “No, one of you explain this to me clearly! Who are you and what do you know of my coven?”

The short one takes a deep breath as he pinches the bridge of his nose.

“Listen,” the one who had his arm on her holds his hands up, “we mean you no harm. My name in San, this is my boyfriend Wooyoung,” he gestures to the short one, “and our coven brother Mingi. We’ve known you were a witch since you came to town, but we keep our coven hidden for purposes that you need not know. You didn’t seem like a threat, so we left you alone.”

“Then you coven shows up in town, one of them knocking on our door asking about you,” Wooyoung says, looking down at all the papers around her cauldron. “Our leader seems to want to help you, so he needs us to hide you while your coven gets put on a false trail. So,” he looks up at her, glaring, “grab what you absolutely need and let’s go.”

“But-”

“No.”

“Hold on-”

“Do you want your coven finding you?”

Despite his hostile tone, Lauren clams up. After a minute of silence, she gives a quick nod. “Fine, let me collect some things,” she sweeps off to her room. After grabbing her satchel, her father’s documents, and collecting her notes from the living room floor, she snatches her parents picture off the counter and faces the men.

“Mingi,” Wooyoung looks over the rest of her things, “don’t make it look like she was robbed, but make it seem like she was in a hurry. Return to the coven house once you’re done. San, you’re with me and her,” stepping forward he takes San’s and Lauren’s hands.

In the next second Lauren feels the all too familiar gut wrenching pull of being teleported, she rips her hand away and stumbles onto the snow-covered forest floor as soon as she can. Coughing violently, she fights off an intense nausea that brings back sharp, painful memories of the last time she was teleported. For a second she sees her father’s smiling face on the train station, but she violently shakes her head and forces herself to stand.

“That’s got to be the worst someone has reacted to teleportation,” Wooyoung muses, raising a brow at her, which she promptly ignores.

“Where are we?”

“Just outside of town,” Wooyoung turns on his heel, walking a short distance before snapping with both hands. Slowly, steam rises from a patch of snow, melting it in a momentary burst of flames to reveal a wooden trap door. “This is an old storage place we use, but you can stay in here until your coven leaves.”

San guides her over with a hand placed on her back. “Don’t unlatch the door for anyone. I have a special spell laced on the lock so me and Wooyoung are the only ones who can open it form the outside. We’ll come back for you once your coven is gone.”

She lets San guide her over as she eyes the door, “and so I just have to trust you guys? I’ve only seen you around town a few times!”

With a grunt, Wooyoung pulls open the door and holds it. “Yeah, I know, I’m still confused why we’re helping, but we aren’t cruel. Even if I’m annoyed, your coven seems like the bad kind and we don’t let innocent witches fall prey to them until we know the complete story.”

“Which you will tell us when we take you back to our coven home, for now though,” San gestures towards the cold underground bunker, “wait here and you’ll be safe.”

Lauren hesitates, standing still as snow falls. They swirl in the air, twisting in the air and sinking into the dark bunker.

“We promise, we aren’t here to hurt you,” she looks back to meet San’s eyes. They hold each other’s gazes for a heartbeat.

“Okay.”

With carefully steps, Lauren descends into the bunker, muttering a fire spell on her way. It’s a small room, nothing inside but a twin bed and cabinet, sparsely filled with some books and pots. The ball of fire keeps the room dimly lit as the door closes heavily behind her, sealing her in. She takes a deep breath and sits down on the bed, the springs creaking in protest.

Without the sunlight or any sound other than the occasional gust of wind, she isn’t sure how long she spends sitting there, playing with her mother’s necklace and waiting, with a heavy shake in her leg. Finally, a flash of flaming light ignites the door, a cascade of warmth flooding the bunker; the lock clicks and hatch is opened. This time, she doesn’t hesitate to go out, welcoming the chill air and heavy snow.

They don’t speak, San just gives her a nod as Wooyoung hides the bunker once more. Wooyoung grips her arm and takes San’s teleporting once again. Lauren is prepared enough to stay on her feet once they land, quickly pulling her arm from Wooyoung’s grasp she inspects around her examining the quaint living room space strew with remnants of the house occupants. There’s no one but the three of them there, and Lauren makes a short distance between them, inching towards the large couch.

“Hongjoong!” San calls out, one hand cupped by his mouth. He turns to Lauren and gestures to the couch, “you can sit,” and she dose, picking the edge closest to the outside porch doors. After she dose, two men sweep into the room.

“Seonghwa?” The man in question gives a small grimace as he follows another witch, whom Lauren also recognizes, “and you’re the weird dude form the store!”

“More importantly,” Hongjoong waves San and Wooyoung to leave as he stands before Lauren, “you are a runaway witch whose coven is trespassing on our land.”

“I didn’t mean for them to find me,” grumbling, she lets herself sink back into the couch as Seonghwa takes a seat on the opposite side of her. “But, um… thank you.”

It’s silent for a minute, Hongjoong staring at her. Seonghwa leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees, “you’re welcome,” he glances at Hongjoong, “don’t mind our coven leader, we just don’t want trouble for our coven.”

“Exactly, so all we need to know is where you need to go so, we can get you headed in that direction before your coven figures out, we duped them.”

“We rarely help your kind,” the vice makes Lauren jump, looking back over the couch to see Wooyoung standing in the hallway, glaring. Seonghwa mutters, “thought we agreed we would handle this,” as he turns to him.

“My kind?” she asks with a small stutter.

“Demonic magic wielders,” he waves his hand, and rolls his eyes as if it’s obvious.

“Oh,” she drops her hand and sinks into the couch, looking down. “To be honest, I only recently found out my coven was a dark one. I uncovered all these documents too,” she pats the satchel she still has close to her side.

“See, I told you she probably didn’t know,” Seonghwa shoots a glare to Wooyoung as he slinks back around the corner and disappears.

Hongjoong steps forward, standing now almost in front of her. “Documents? What documents?”

Still unsure about them, she hesitates and grips the satchel. “My father figured it all out, the magic my coven was using and what they truly valued more than the High Coven’s codes. He tried to contact the High coven, but our High Priest wouldn’t allow it and my father was killed. That’s why I’m on the run,” her knuckles are white, hands shaking, and her words falter. “I need to get these documents to the High Coven My coven needs to pay for their crimes.

“Wait, wait,” Hongjoong holds his hands up. Confused, he says, “your coven can’t have a High Priest in it. That’s not—that’s not—no just, no.”

“But… why?”

“To become a High Priest, you have to denounce your own coven, leave them behind and physically leave the coven and join the ranks of the High Coven,” he lets out a frustrated breath, “you can’t be a High Priest and still be a part of a coven, let alone running it!”

“Oh, well, see we weren’t taught that in school,” she grows hesitant as anger seems to grow on Hongjoong’s face. “High Priest and Priestess Kensington told us they handle all High Coven communications and to come to them with any need. The two of them run the entire coven.

Hongjoong shouts, kicking over the coffee table, narrowly missing hitting Seonghwa who swings his legs out of the way. With another shout and a burst of black shadow sparks, Hongjoong storms away, slamming open the front door.

It’s silent for a moment before Seonghwa sighs. Once he’s placed his feet back on the floor, he turns to Lauren. “Sorry about our leader, he is passionate about the High Coven and what they do for our covens. He’s wanted to join their ranks since he was young.”

Lauren blinks and tilts her head, looking around as she thinks for a second. “But they don’t do much for covens. Like, our coven was told they try to let coven’s figure things out on their own,” Seonghwa scoffs at that. “My dad was told they wouldn’t bother with the little coven, that they looked down on us.”

He heaves a sigh and shakes his head, glancing back towards the door before focusing on her again. “That’s not how the High Coven is at all, they do care. In my coven,” he steals a quick glance behind him and speaks softly, “my original coven that is, they were there almost once a week at one point. They were simply trying to keep my coven heads in check, make sure they were abusing our women as they had been.”

“Exactly,” Lauren jumps, looking up to see Hongjoong, hands behind his head and fresh snow on his hair, walking back in, “and to be a part of the coven you have to study and train. Like I have,” by this point his face has set into a harsh glare and his hands drop back to his sides as he walks back to Lauren’s side of the couch. “Alright, so, you have evidence against your coven?”

“Yeah,” she holds up the satchel for a moment, “I collected all my dad’s documents before I ran away. As soon as I realized my coven leaders had been killing people,” for a moment she hesitates, swallows, and ten continues, “and doing dark magic, once I knew that I wanted to find the High Coven, but I didn’t know how to without the High Priest. So, I’ve been trying to find my mother to see if she would know, but she left shortly after I was born. I’ve been trying a tracking spell on this necklace,” Hongjoong and Seonghwa both gaze to the pendant around her neck, “but I’m still a novice so I haven’t been able to find any trace or trail.”

“Wait,” Hongjoong holds up his hand, “back up,” he looks to Seonghwa then back to Lauren with a brow raised. “They didn’t even teach you how to ask for guidance? How to call on a High Priestess to gain some form of divine guidance?”

“No, we were to go to our High Priest and Priestess of our coven.”

She hears Seonghwa sigh as Hongjoong closes his eyes and grabs his hair, groaning as he tugs on the strands for a second before placing his hands in front of his face. “Breathe,” Seonghwa mutters, watching Hongjoong. It takes a few more second before Hongjoong calms himself down and he nods as he opens his eyes again.

“What you are supposed to be taught,” he seethes through gritted teeth, “is to pray to them.”

“It sounds weird because we are witches,” Seonghwa chuckles, showing a friendly smile, “but if you close your eyes and ask for the High Coven and tell them you are seeking guidance to an issue, they’ll come to you.”

“Not in their physical form though,” Hongjoong clarifies, “secrecy is huge in the High Coven. No one even knows the exact location of the High Coven is so more often than not, they will astral project. Something all perspective coven members need to learn.”

Lauren sighs, “that’s how my coven traced me. I was trying to contact a,” she hesitates, “an old coven member, and he used demonic tracing to find me, but I thought it would be safe because astral projection comes naturally to my family.”

“That makes two of us,” Hongjoong muses.

“Can it,” she pauses and bites her lip, “lie, is it really that easy?” Both of them give an affirmative nod.

“We don’t have much time,” Seonghwa sits forward, piercing eyes forcing her to look at him, “your coven will come back soon.”

“These documents and this purpose are important,” sighing, Hongjoong looks to Seonghwa. They share a long stare, a silent conversation passing between them. “I’d rather just send you on your merry way, but this is different,” he turns back to her. “I know you all are listening in, so listen close. We have to protect you; you have evidence that could help bring charges against the corrupt covens. That would be amazing. And we want to—no, we need to get those documents to the High Coven. Do you guys understand?”

Slowly, the rest of the coven members shuffle out from the hallway. Lauren does a quick head count, pulling her satchel closer as she realizes how many members there are. Her eyes skirt across their faces, noting the few she had seen in town throughout her short time here. They all seem hesitant. One in particular looks mildly scared, and it takes her a second to realize its Yeosang from the library. Her eyes linger on him for a second longer before focusing back on Hongjoong.

“I hate to ask you all to uproot everything we’ve built here, our whole lives and the good luck we’ve had, but this,” he gestures to Lauren, “is what we’ve been looking for, we finally have it. A way to bring all our covens to justice.”

The rest of the coven shares looks, muttering to each other. Hongjoong walks back over to listen to them, leaving Lauren and Seonghwa on the couch. Lauren takes the time to process the situation. She looks at her satchel, playing with the edges of it and thinking over the documents she has.

“Is this, a huge problem,” she asks, looking to Seonghwa, “are there more coven’s like mine?”

He looks at her for a long second before nodding. “They’ve been slowly growing in numbers and working to break down the High Coven. They want to turn back to the old times and bring witches back to the days before the Salem event. Dark magic, bad laws, and chaos. Your coven is probably on the list.”

“The list?”

“A list the High Coven has of covens that are a part of this new uprising, they’re keeping a close eye on them. Yeosang and Mingi, the one off to the side and the tall one with the fading red hair,” she steals a glance to locate Mingi and put the name to a face, “their covens are near the top of the list from what we know.”

A loud clap sending Lauren into a short panic, her breath catching as she turns to look for the sound, but it’s only Hongjoong smiling as he walks back over.

“We’ve all agreed to help, Seonghwa you’re okay with it, right?”

“I promised I’d always stick by you,” there’s a soft smile on his face, “plus I’m your healer, you need me.”

“Fair enough,” he rolls his eyes.

“The thing is we aren’t all keen to help you in particular,” Wooyoung steps forward, the harsh glare still resting on his face, “keep that in mind. We are more concerned about getting the documents to the High Coven so we can help our coven.”

“That’s comforting,” she mutters while shrinking back from his harsh energy.

Seonghwa shoots him a warning glare.

“Well, if we’re doing this, should I call a High Coven member for guidance, right?” she rises off the couch and walks to Hongjoong. “My tracking spells using my mother’s necklace have not worked. It’s too old, and she left too long ago, so I have no idea where to start.”

“Yes, we’ll start with you calling on a High Priestess. Seonghwa and I will be with you as you do this, so we know you aren’t keeping anything form us,” he tacks on before turning to the rest of his coven, “please this time just go wait in your rooms and stop camping out in the hallways. Let me and Seonghwa handle this,” there’s protest from San and Wooyoung, but after a good long stare from Seonghwa they conceded and retreat with the rest.

Once they’re alone, Hongjoong takes the seat beside Seonghwa. Lauren quietly asks him to reexplain it again, while he seems annoyed at having to, Seonghwa lays a gentle hand on his shoulder and he calms down. As nicely as he can, he goes over what the process to call a High Priestess with her, Seonghwa jumping in to clarify when he sees her face twist in confusion, and once they’re done Lauren moves to the open space of the living room, setting the satchel aside while sitting crossed leg. The two on the couch watch her intently; she takes a long deep breath.

“Just speak to the High Coven, ask for guidance,” she repeats this to herself as she places her hands, palm up, on her knees and closes her eyes.

The house falls still.

Hongjoong watches, semi-annoyed, while Seonghwa holds his breath, keeping his eyes open for an apparition. Lauren concentrates, repeats the same phrase “I don’t know where to go and I need the High Coven’s guidance to find my way,” inside her head on loop and simultaneously pushing down the nerves and fear.

The coven holds their breath.

Lauren fights back the thought, “this is pointless,” and forces herself to concentrate on reaching out into the world, closing her eyes tighter and taking another deep breath. She stays there for a long time, knowing it may take some time, but trying to be patient.

Seonghwa’s head, which had fallen to rest on the couch behind him, shoots up. “She’s here.”

Opening her eyes, Lauren lets the tension in her body go as she looks around. For a second she thinks he’s lying, but then the air near the dining room table shimmers and a figure in a long white robe appears, walking to them. Hongjoong is on his feet in an instant, Seonghwa close to follow.

“By my stars,” the woman smiles, moving her long ponytail from her shoulder as she looks to Lauren, “it really is a lost coven child who has called upon us,” she places a hand over her chest. She turns to the pair standing together, “and hello again, Hongjoong, Seonghwa.”

“Of course, it would be you,” Seonghwa is smiling, shaking his head. “It’s good to see you, Tamara,” Hongjoong echoes his sentiment.

Lauren takes a second to pull herself back to her feet, putting her satchel back on her shoulder before asking, “what do you mean lost coven child?”

“You’re not a coven member I recognize,” Tamara explains, motioning for everyone to sit down as she walks to them. “Over the years we’ve had covens disappear into the shadows, still there but shrouded from our vision and removed from our books. Tell me, dear, who is your coven leader?”

“His name is Kensington.”

“Ah, now that was one of the first covens we lost. Interesting,” she pauses, crossing her arms as she eyes Lauren. “So, my dear, why have you called upon us?”

The nerves return, the High Priestess scrutinizing gaze almost makes her want to hide, but she swallows all of it and explains herself. “My coven is full of dangerous witches, ones willing to kill their own blood to make sure no one contacts the High Coven. I have evidence to prove their wrong doings and their location,” she opens her satchel and begins pulling out her father’s research. Aware that she can’t touch anything in her astral form, Lauren lies out the documents on the coffee table so she can see everything important. “Some of these documents I don’t even understand myself, but my father has been gathering evidence since I was a child… he kept a lot from me.”

The High Priestess is quiet as she looks at the documents spreads out before her. Her eyes rake over each document, giving them all equal time; Hongjoong and Seonghwa take the time to study them as well, looking as diligently as she does. “This is very important information,” she says after a while, still looking them over. “This is actually what we have been looking for, what we’ve been needing.”

“I had a feeling,” Hongjoong sighs in relief, “I’m sad I never found it myself, but my coven has their own testimonies for other covens. We need to get these to you, we need to get to you,” she looks away as Hongjoong leans forward into her field of view. “How do we do that?”

The High Priestess stares at him for a second, then smiles. “Similar to what I told Wooyoung and San once upon a time, you already have the tools needed.”

“Me?” Hongjoong’s face twists, looking to Seonghwa in confusion.

“No, well, yes and no,” Tamara finally steps back from the documents, motioning for Lauren to put them away. “You have the tool, but she is the one who has to use the tool.”

“Ah!” a lightbulb seems to go off, Hongjoong’s eyes widen. Seonghwa now takes the confused look as Hongjoong quickly hops to his feet and dashes from the room, almost in a blur. He returns in no time, clutching an old, worn compass in his hand.  
Lauren is lost, but Seonghwa recognizes the item. “The compass, I thought it didn’t work?”

“Well,” he looks sheepish, a little guilty, “I said it didn’t, but it does. It’s dark magic. Magic I’ve avoided, but it was given to my mom on her first day in our coven. A gift in case she had left, a compass that will guide her to what she desires most,” there’s a bitter taste to those words as he glares at the object. “It’s only supposed to work for certain witches, though he was vague about which ones could use it and which couldn’t. It works for me and my mother, but no one else.”

“And you don’t’ use it because of the dark magic?” Lauren asks, trying to understand something about the strange coven members.

“Yeah,” he nods as he walks over to her seat, “I’ve been trying to separate myself from as much dark magic as I can since me and Seonghwa left our coven, but you still have a lot of dark magic in your veins from your coven.”

“I hate to break it to you Hongjoong,” they all turn to the High Priestess, “but that isn’t dark magic,” he opens his mouth to protest and call her bluff, but she silences him by saying “that’s pure divine magic and the witch we gave it you your mother must have been a divine witch. They’re very rare, but that compass has a lot of divine energy radiating off it.”

Hongjoong looks at it, turning it over in his palm, “I was so drawn to it though. I could have sworn a dark witch charmed it,” As he turns the compass back over and holds to it tightly, the arrow spins before pointing at Lauren. Seonghwa leans over his shoulder, raising a brow. Hongjoong can’t help but laugh, shaking his head, “I can’t even think of what I want most right now, I really don’t know,” he tosses it to Lauren.

Not suspecting it to be tossed to her, Lauren fumbles to catch it, heart rate skyrocketing as she holds it delicately in her palms.

“Think of what you want most,” the High Priestess instructs as Lauren stands to face north. “I already know what you want. You’re on the right path,” her words fade with her astral form, leaving the room silent.

“Always cryptic,” Seonghwa grumbles.

Lauren looks at the compass and even though she knows she needs to get the documents to the High Coven; her mother still comes to her mind. She sees the necklace, thinks of the picture, her father, and all she can picture is finding her mother. The High Coven needs her, but so does her mother. The compass points true north for a second and it spins, slowly at first. It spins for a good minute, calculating, and then it swings, pointing due west.

“Seonghwa,” Hongjoong’s face breaks out into a wide grin as he stares down the compass, “get a map.”


	8. Chapter Seven: Nowhere is Safe

The coven spends a good while looking over the map, discussing where the High Coven could be located. The amount of space between them and the western coast leaves many options to explore, and Lauren situates herself at their dining table with Seonghwa, who seems uninterested in guessing the location. Lauren had given him the documents, deciding him to be the most trustworthy of the coven. And while he does, she continues to examine the mysterious compass. No matter how she turns it or what she thinks about, it always points west, but not directly west. Having only looked at it for a brief moment before Hongjoong ran to get the coven, it seemed to point west, but the arrow rests just above the west marker.

“Memphis? Los Angeles? Vegas? It could be any of these!” Mingi tosses himself onto the couch, turning away from the map in defeat.

Jongho is sitting looking over the map from the ground with Hongjoong who says, “We could just head west, take the Amtrack to Los Angeles and test the compass at every stop.”

“Taking the Amtrack from Memphis to Los Angeles goes north first and then west and south,” Jongho adds, tracing his finger over the vague path, “I’ve looked at it when I was looking at taking the human way back home.”

“Amtrack tickets for nine people, how could we even afford that,” Lauren muses to herself, glancing at the coven and then to Seonghwa.

With a smile, Seonghwa says, “we have a rather large savings and a very persuasive leader, don’t worry.”

Even though he has the most calming presence, Lauren still feels a little weirded out by some of his responses.

After more bickering from the living room, Hongjoong gives a loud shout and claps his hands together, Lauren flinches.

“The best way is to take the Amtrack, as we said. This way we can test the compass direction and see if we’re heading the right way. To get to Memphis, though, we have to be careful. Lauren,” she looks up, “how well can your coven track people?”

“Very well, I mean, I was only in my astral form for a short time and they still followed my trail,” she says. “They more than likely are using a demon spell for tracking.”

Hongjoong hums, nodding his head and turning to Mingi.

“That’s probably right,” Mingi agrees. “From the time in my first coven, I learned demon magic and demons themselves are more powerful than our normal magic. For some reason, their energy is stronger.”

“It comes straight from a source,” Lauren squints, feeling the hair on her neck stand up, but Seonghwa explains that Hongjoong studied demonology extensively in their coven. “We use magic that’s filtered, but demons and divine beings pull straight from their own source. Doesn’t mean it’s better or superior though, as we’ve all seen first-hand.”

Two members send side glances to Lauren, Wooyoung’s still just as harsh. Sinking back in the chair, she clutches her necklace and looks down again.

“So, they’re skilled trackers,” Seonghwa pulls everyone back on course, “which means San is going to have his work cut out for him, and Wooyoung can’t teleport us anywhere for a while. The less magic we leave behind, the better.”

Everyone agrees with him on that.

“Now, before we embark on this, I think a couple of things that need clarification,” Wooyoung says. “Lauren, your coven told us you are a dark fire magic wielder,” before he can even ask her to clarify, she laughs.

The sound of her high-pitched laughter feels out of place in the static tension, but the idea of her being a fire which is still the most hilarious thing to her. With the sudden rush of emotions came a few tears, which she wipes away as she shakes her head.

“I’m not a dark fire witch,” she clarifies after she calms down, “I’m not even a dark witch. My main specialty is telekinesis, the first magic I mastered, and my second would be nature and healing. My father told me I inherited it from my mother,” she giggles and shakes her head. “I’m the furthest from a dark witch there could be.”

“Another healer,” Seonghwa’s eyebrows shoot up for a second before relaxing as he smiles. “Could be good to have two healers, given the circumstances.”

“I’ve always been told it’s good to have two medics,” she adds, “in case something happens to one the coven won’t be helpless.”

Wooyoung scoffs, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms. “That doesn’t mean you’re going to be good for us. Until I have some proof, you will not pull some dark magic out, I’m not gonna trust you. Plus, Hongjoong tried to use dark magic on you, small mind control to get you to just leave this town, and it didn’t work, so no, I’m not gonna trust you. San, come on,” Wooyoung stands up, pulling his boyfriend with as he leaves the room.

It’s silent for a minute. Seonghwa glares after them as Hongjoong mutters something under his breath before going back to the map. As he and Jongho look over the map, Yunho rises from the couch and makes his way over to the dining table.

“If it’s any consolation, I’m a truth seeker and you don’t seem to be lying,” he says with a hesitant smile, “but please understand most of us have come from dark covens who did horrible things to us. You reek of dark magic even if you don’t use it, which makes you a magnet for it. We just want to be safe.”

“I understand,” the words are watery. She blinks back tears as the emptiness gnaws at her stomach. “I’ll let you guys handle everything. I’m going to sit on the porch for a bit, come get me when we have a plan,” she then pushes back her chair and walks to the door, keeping her pace even and calm.

As soon as the door closes, Seonghwa rounds on Yunho.

“What? I was just being honest, she should at least know where we stand,” he defends.

“I get that, but still! Can you not see she’s in pain from all she’s gone through? Obviously, you can, so don’t answer,” he raises his hand to stop him from responding. “Just be a little decent next time. We don’t have to like her, but we don’t have to be cruel either,” he waves his hand from Yunho to leave and turns back to continue reading all the documents.

From the couch, Yeosang and Mingi watch the scene play out, Yeosang hearing everything with his owl hearing and relaying it to Mingi when he knows he can’t hear. Hongjoong refuses to acknowledge any of this and focuses on the map.

A few hours later Lauren I still on the porch, curled up in one of the few chairs free of snow. Despite the biting cold, she doesn’t dare go back inside until asked to. There was a small part of her that hoped for something good to come of this new coven. He had saved her after all, but once again she’s alone and that thought alone brings back the numbness.

“At least I can find the high coven,” she repeats this quietly to reassure herself of her current purpose.

The sun falls and the porch light is only offering a dim orange glow to the landscape around the porch when the door opens. It’s Jongho who’s head pops out. Looking at her he raises a brow and notes the fresh snow resting on her in white flakes, giving away just how cold she is. Without a word, she looks away and stands up, brushing off the snow before following him inside. The only person left in the area is Seonghwa, and he leads her over to the couch where he sits holding a steaming cup of tea.

“Drink,” he says as soon as she sits down, pushing the cup into her hands.

Reluctantly she takes it while asking, “is there a plan in place yet?”

Seonghwa hums an affirmation but waits until she’s taken a sip before explaining the plan. “We hike from here to Memphis, should take a week or less, but it’s the safest way with our tracker–San–covering our trail. That way we don’t leave a singlet race of magic. From Memphis, we take an Amtrack to Los Angeles, and from there we can use you and the compass from there to track the high coven.”

“Is there a backup plan?”

“Not yet, but Hongjoong and Mingi are working on it. Both of them have some expertise in demon magic, so they’re the ones who know best how to work with your coven.”

“Okay, and I just need to stay out of everyone’s way, right?”

Seonghwa sighs. “Sadly yes, I wish I could say my coven will grow to like you, they might, but it will take time. This will be a long trip, so just play it safe.”

The sinking feeling returns, and the tea leaves a bad after taste. She places the cup down on the coffee table. “Am I able to return to my place until we leave?”

“No, Hongjoong wants you here where we can keep an eye on you. In the morning I’ll take you over to collect your things, but for tonight you’ll be sleeping here,” he pats the couch and tries for a reassuring smile.

The emptiness continues to grow with each word. She holds in her panic well with a quick nod. Someone approaches them with quiet footsteps, causing Seonghwa to look up.

“Ah Yeosang, thank you,” he stands up and reaches over the couch to grab a blanket and pillow from him. “You can have these,” he places them next to her. “Try to get some sleep, it’s going to be a long week.”

She doesn’t look up at either of them, they share a concerned look before taking their leave with a hushed conversation together. Lauren waits until she hears a door close before letting herself relax.

She doesn’t bother making any kind of bed with the blankets, instead she collects her satchel and reorganizes everything within before placing it under her head on the couch as she lays down.

When the sun rises, Lauren is already awake, having only fallen asleep for a few hours. The rest of the coven wakes up in stages, Seonghwa being the first, offering her breakfast. Once the rest of the coven wakes and eats, Hongjoong pulls them to the living room to go over the details of their trip. He draws their route out on the map and then stashes it away to pack. As the coven disperses to beginning packing for the trip, Seonghwa takes Lauren back to collect all her things while also putting the house back in order for the owner.

Before they head out, Seonghwa stops her and holds out a charm.

“What’s this?” she takes it to examine it.

“It’s a heat charm. Not as sophisticated as the ones the rest of my coven has, but we’re going to be hiking in snow and freezing temperatures this charm will keep you mostly warm. I didn’t have much time to craft it and Wooyoung, our elemental, wouldn’t help,” he grimaces.

“Well,” she gives him a soft smile, “thank you anyway, I appreciate the gesture.”

Once they return to the coven house everyone is ready to move out. With Yeosang’s glamour in place, they head out of town, sticking to the highway before heading west through the rough forest terrain. Yeosang’s glamor comes down just after mid-day, deeming it safe enough for them to travel. San’s hand continuously emits a white mist that wraps around them and clears up any trace behind them as they hike.

Lauren stays near the back, just a foot away from the group. She takes this time to examine the coven and learn what she can. From what she can tell, all of them are animals used to forest environments. Except for Hongjoong, who is sure-footed but easily tangled in the thick brush and snow. They’re all very vibrant and playful, laughter being a common sound from them as they speak amongst themselves. There’s a distinct set of pairs they split into and shift between. Wooyoung and San aren’t a surprising pair, Wooyoung stays attached to San’s side, blocking him from any attack from the forest. Seonghwa and Hongjoong lead the entire party forward, Seonghwa occasionally pulling out a map which Hongjoong will consult. The others flit among themselves, but Yunho seems to be very close to Yeosang, who initiates no conversation himself. A few times Jongho or Yunho will look back at her, making sure she’s still there. She is a fox, she isn’t prone to tripping or falling, but she wonders if they would even help her if she did.

They continue onward until the moon is high in the sky, stopping to create a makeshift camp so the group can get a few hours of rest before they move on. Seonghwa makes a quick dinner for everyone, which Lauren tries to refuse. Inevitably, though, she takes the warm stew and sits a few feet away from them to eat. The heating charm works well enough in the bitter cold, but she can tell the rest of the coven’s charms are more sophisticated. They don’t shiver or flinch from the cold. She does her best to hide this from them, trying not to seem at all weak. It’s bad enough she’s an outcast, but she needs them, and she knows that.

They continue this pattern of eat, hike, stop, eat, sleep, and so on for the next few days. Lauren keeps a mental tally every time the sun rises. On the seventh night they finally make their way into Memphis, heading straight for the Amtrack station.

Hongjoong and Seonghwa buy the tickets while the rest of the coven waits outside, and by this point, winter has taken a firm grip on the south. Lauren can’t hold the shivers back, sitting on a bench with her jacket pulled tightly around her. The heating charm has worn down by this point, barely emitting any extra warmth to her body. She focuses her energy on creating some heat, concentrating so much that she doesn’t notice one of the others walking towards her.

“Here,” she jumps, looking up to find Yunho holding out his jacket to her. “We’ll be in the train soon, but you look like you need this.”

Unsure, she reaches a hesitant hand out and coughs to clear her throat before speaking. “Thank you,” putting on the jacket, she feels some semblance of warmth return, pulling a smile from her as she gives him a quick nod which he returns before walking back to his coven.

Not long later, Hongjoong ushers them all into the station and they make their way to their platform. The station is for the most part empty, the holiday rush won’t be for another couple of weeks, just before Christmas week. The lack of humans makes the station seem colder, eerier as they pass through. Something heavy settles in Lauren’s stomach, but she ignores it as they board the train.

As soon as everyone finds a place to sit, once again in their main pairs, and the train moves, Hongjoong stands up to address them, “this is a ten-hour trip, to Chicago. Once there, we’ll test the compass and plan our next move from there. For now, I suggest you all get some sleep.”

Everyone heeds his advice and quickly settles in for sleep. Lauren gives Yunho back his jacket, quietly thanking him again before sitting back in her own seat, a few rows behind the coven to give them their space. It takes a bit for her to relax, but slowly the train lulls her to sleep.

The train arrives at Union Station the next morning, the coven disembarks, and a handful of them start complaining about hunger. While Hongjoong makes a plea to test the compass first, their cries for hunger win out. The coven disperses in different directions to find food, marking a bench with a spell so they can find each other again afterward. Seonghwa hesitates to follow Hongjoong and Mingi, eyeing Lauren with concern, but then Yunho steps up to her and wraps an arm around her shoulders, making her whole-body freeze and lock up.

“We’ll take her to get food with us,” he declares, sporting a wide smile as Yeosang steps up next to him.

“And we will make sure she eats,” Yeosang cuts in just as Seonghwa opens his mouth. “Go check on your man,” Seonghwa’s mouth snaps closed, his cheeks flush red, and then he quickly turns and follows the others.

“Come on,” Yunho eases Lauren forward, leading her to the food court.

Unsure how to take this sudden mood, she tries to speak as little as possible, letting the two of them converse next to her as she follows. When asked about food she answers, allowing Yunho to buy for her. They each get their own meal before walking back through the station. Lauren continues to stay silent, enjoying the peaceful presence before she’s back to the hostile stares from the others.

The heavy feeling returns to her stomach and the hairs on her neck stand up. She falters before standing up straight, freezing in place as she looks around.

“Lauren?” Yeosang calls out to her as he turns to look after hearing her footsteps halt, but she doesn’t look at him.

Just across the area, there in stands Lauren’s worst fear, Damien. Her blood runs cold, holding her in place as her heart-rate skyrockets. Seeing her reaction, he grins and waves as he makes his way leisurely towards her.

“Lauren,” Yunho steps towards her and follows her gaze, “who is that?”

“Damien,” as she breathes his name out, Yeosang’s head snaps in his direction.

“That’s Damien?” she can only nod, hands beginning to shake as she steps back into Yunho, who steps in front of her as he glares him down.

Yeosang, on the other hand, takes a more direct approach. With rage rolling off his shoulder, he drops the food in his hand, marches up to Damien, and pulls his arm back, throwing a solid, heavy punch to his face. This breaks Lauren’s trance; she yelps as she falls back into her body and covers her mouth.

“Take another step,” Yeosang growls, “I dare you.”

Damien laughs, lifting his head as blood drips from his nose. “I see you’ve got a protect squad now, huh? Feisty bunch.”

Yunho steps further in front of her, eyes dark as he says, “you’re not getting her or the information she holds. We’re taking her to the high coven and you, nor your coven or the other devil-worshiping covens will stop us.”

“Oh, on the contrary,” he wipes the blood away, “all of you are now on our hit list, they have marked this entire coven as kill on site. Of course, my dear coven mate,” he flashes her a smile. “Is the first target, but if you get in the way, well, no one is going to hold back.”

The grin is still in place, boiling Yeosang’s blood so he lunges forward and lands once more punch before rushing back and ushering Yunho and Lauren back to the rendezvous point.

“If he’s here, the rest of the coven attack force has to be,” Lauren says.

“I know,” Yunho nods his head, “we can’t wait for an Amtrack. We have to get out of here now.”

As they round the corner, the coven is already back and lounged around the bench eating. Upon seeing them, though, Seonghwa stands at attention.

“They’re here,” Yunho declares, loud enough so everyone hears as they rush over, “we have to leave now. Get out of Chicago and go.”

“They have a kill on sight order,” Lauren adds, “for all of us. I’m sorry you have a target on you now.”

“Don’t,” Hongjoong surprises her with this, “it’s okay. We knew what we were getting into. This is important. We’ll handle it. What’s your compass say?”

Fumbling, she opens her satchel and yanks the compass from it. Clenching it as she waits for the arrow to stop spinning. “South-west, mostly south.”

“Okay, we’re still on track for California then.”

“Guys,” Mingi calls their attention to a group of black-cloaked figures coming towards them.

“Go!”

Everyone gathers their things in a rush before making a break for the main entrance. San takes the lead at that point, guiding them through the city streets towards the countryside where he can more easily cover their trail. Yeosang does his best to glamour them as well, but in their haste, it isn’t as strong as before. They make it out of the city, but as soon as they reach a field, the cloaked figures materialize around them, shooting out different magic energies right at them.

“Down!”

They all drop into the snow, holding themselves down until the magic dissipates. Wooyoung jumps up then with a shot, stretching his arms out, sending a gust of wind outward to knock them all back. This gives them enough time to move.

“Head for the trees, once we have cover, we can fight back!”

The coven follows Hongjoong’s orders without hesitation. Lauren keeps up with them as best she can, darting into the trees and disappearing into the brush. The sounds of magic being cast back-and-forth rises, filling the surrounding woods. She stays as hidden as she can, making her way through the brush and avoiding stray magic.

“There’s a river!” Yeosang’s voice comes from above, a snowy owl flies through the trees as Yeosang’s voice rings out, “head for the river and we can cross!”

She takes a second to orient herself, listening for the sound of water past the fighting, the smell of the fresh snow covers the smell of the river, so she focusses her hearing as she slinks through the trees, sticking close to the trunks to avoid contact with any other witches. 

“Lauren!”

An icy chill runs down her spine, she freezes with her back locked against a tree and she looks up to see Damien’s demonic eyes just up the hill. The rest of the coven is running and fighting still, but she’s stuck, trapped as Damien stares her down.

“I have waited so long for this,” his hands spark, black flames swirling with dark magic surge up, “being able to put you in your place, remind you where you belong. I wish I could’ve killed your father too, but at least I can kill you!” the flames morph into a solid ball, pulsing with raw magic and pure energy.

Panic overtakes her, hands gripping the tree behind her as she takes a shaky breath. Everything slows as Damien throws himself forward, sending the blast straight down the hill towards her. The force of it shatters the trees in its path, splinters flying out into the distance while the heat melts the snow. Lauren throws up a small force field, blocking a majority of the wood, but it’s nothing strong enough to stop the fire. As it draws closer, the force field burns up, searing her skin with pure hellfire. She hears a scream in the distance, but it’s just her as she falls against the tree.

Just as quickly as it came, it ends in a blur of a black figure running towards her and the intense burning heat of the blast. The air leaves her lungs as the tree breaks under the pressure of the magic as the figure wraps its arms around her. They are sent flying, landing a few feet away, rolling down a hill with the debris and ash. The two muscular arms had been around her vanish as she hazily comes back to her senses. Everything is bruised and cut, the heat having been blocked by something else leaves only minor burns on her arms and legs. The fight still rages around her, further off, but still just as active. As she goes to sit up, she hears a whine come from beside her. Quickly turning, she finds herself looking down at a small cub, howling sharply in pain as it rolls over onto its side, showing off a couple of large slashes and bloody, burnt fur. It screams louder when she reaches towards it and for a second, she doesn’t understand what she’s seeing, who this is, but then it opens its eyes and her heart stops.

“Jongho!”


	9. Chapter Eight: Broken & Healing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song(s): “Oasis” by EXO, “Run Away” by Royal Pirates, “Tell Me What To Do” by SHINee, "Let the Flames Begin" by Paramore

Jongho’s howls of pain echoes around him and Lauren, who stares in pure horror for a long minute before her brain catches up. She crawls to the cub and begins a stitching spell over the burnt fur and gashes, mending them to where blood stops pouring out. Ignoring her own wounds, she picks him up while muttering apologies into his fur.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry this happened. You shouldn’t be hurt, your coven is going to kill me,” her body shakes at the thought, but the sound of someone approaching forces her legs to move, following the sound of the water once more.

The tree line breaks giving way to a riverbank, the roaring current greets them with a sharp splash. It doesn’t take her long to spot the rest of the coven further upstream, looking worn and beaten as they fight off a few of her coven members. Not wasting time, she rushes to them, clinging Jongho to her chest as she calls out to get their attention.

“Lauren! Where is,” Seonghwa jogs to meet her, but quickly trails off when he spots his missing coven member in her arms?

“I’m sorry,” she blurts out, tears forming. “He just, he just jumped in front of me and he took the hit.”

Seonghwa reaches forward, hesitantly, hand hovering over his head for a second before resting there. “Is he dead?”

“No! No, no, gods no he’s alive, I did my best, but he needs a better healer,” she sniffles, shaking, “you should take him.”

“After we cross the river,” he turns and waves for her to follow him back to the coven.

Hongjoong is shouting orders at Wooyoung above the sound of the river, Yeosang holds a force field in place to keep the other witches at bay as they collect themselves. Amidst everything Lauren can’t focus, blood still rushing through her veins and heart pumping too fast, all she hears is Jongho’s whines and her ragged breathing. 

Wooyoung, who looks to be barely standing as is, steps into the water, creating a safe current for them, “let’s move!” Someone guides Lauren into the line they form, helping her stay afloat as they begin the struggle across, she notes Yeosang in the rear, holding the force field until they’re far enough in for Wooyoung to return the deadly current back to its full force. Mingi and Yunho take up defensive spells as the witches fire balls of pure magic towards them. The trek across is slow and hard, but once they’re halfway there, the fire stops and they continue on steadily.

As soon as they reach the shoreline, everyone collapses. 

Soaking wet, with blood and dirt covering them, the exhaustion knocks them all down onto the rocky shoreline. Some move to the grass slope, leading into the trees, the rest lay in the rocks to catch their breath. Lauren holds Jongho tightly as she falls to her knees at the water’s edge, muttering a quiet apology once more. By now Jongho’s whines have quieted down and he makes a snuffling sound as he paws at her shoulder, lifting his nose to press into her neck, but she doesn’t register the affectionate gesture. She doesn’t even notice the coven members watching her as Seonghwa gets up and walks towards her.

“Lauren?” her head jerks up, looking at Seonghwa as he crouches next to her. He says nothing but holds out his hands for Jongho. At first, she hesitates and then nods, lowering her head as she pulls him off her shoulder. Taking him with care, he thanks her as he examines Jongho’s wounds, patching him up more. “You did good,” he says, hand gliding over Jongho’s stomach, “thank you, for saving him.”

She steals a glance at him, but seeing Jongho causes her to look back at her hands, covered in blood and still shaking. 

“Hey, hey,” this time it’s Wooyoung’s voice calling her attention as he walks up to them, “you need to breathe or you’re going to pass out. Ah shit,” he crouches on her other side, reaching a hand out to grab her arm, but she yelps in pain as soon as he touches it.

Looking down, she finds her arms burned, and the pain comes full force at this realization.

“Hold him,” Seonghwa shoves Jongho into Wooyoung’s arms and takes swift action to heal Lauren’s wounds. “Jongho is stable, I’ll do some more healing sessions on our way to wherever we go next. He’s gonna need a lot more healing before he can shift back. You,” he sighs, running his hand over the burn marks, carefully repairing the skin, “will need some bandages, these burns have magic in them. Jongho shifting actually saved him from burn damage along with his heat charm, so the big gash was the major wound.”

“I’m sorry.”

He pauses, taking a second to look at her. “It’s okay, we choose this.”

She shakes her head, “but you didn’t choose this!”

“We did,” Wooyoung speaks up, grabbing a roll of bandages from San to give to Seonghwa, “and we weren’t expecting your coven to be that strong, but we agreed to this. And if Jongho jumped in front of such a strong magic blast for you,” he looks to the cub, heaving a weighted sigh, “then you have to be a good person, so don’t beat yourself up about this.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Hongjoong adds from where he sits patching up the other, less injured members. “Right now, we need to take five and gather our bearings before we talk about what to do next.”

They move their way into the tree line, out of sight of the other shore as they collect themselves. Yeosang sets up a makeshift barrier while everyone else gets tended to. Mingi makes sure everyone drinks and eats some snacks, passing them out from one of Seonghwa’s bags. At some point, Jongho begins whining again until he’s given back to Lauren where he curls up against her neck. Wooyoung eyes this wearily but sticks to his boyfriend’s side. By the time Hongjoong and Seonghwa check each other’s injuries, everyone else has rested and the unspoken question of ‘what now?’ hangs heavy in the air.

“Jongho needs a healer,” Seonghwa starts, “one much more skilled than me or Lauren. Combined, we both did amazing, but he needs more advanced healing to shift back.”

Hongjoong sighs. “The only healer like that is my mother, and I really didn’t want to go back there.”

“I know,” he rests a hand on Hongjoong’s shoulder, squeezing it gently, “but if the compass points that way it may be best to head straight for there. None of you know any excellent healers, do you?”

Everyone shakes their heads.

Careful not to jostle Jongho, Lauren reaches into her pocket and pulls out the compass. “Who wants to figure out which way is north for me? I’m a little mixed up after everything.”

San lifts his hand into the air, humming for a second before pointing behind them. Lauren adjusts the compass to face north and waits. The needle spins a few times before stopping on the southwest marker. 

“Well,” Hongjoong signs, “my coven would be southwest of here, so I guess we’ll be making a stop.”

Mingi raises his hand, “sorry but how? Getting to a train station from here is going to be hell. That coven is going to be crawling all over this area.”

No one answers him.

“I could try to teleport us,” Wooyoung offers.

“Babe,” San shakes his head, “teleporting this many people would drain you completely.”

“If we got to an Amtrak station I could rest on the way,” he turns to Hongjoong, and asks, “where is your coven again?”

“Just north of Vegas.”

“Right, so I can rest. I’ll be fine,” San still looks hesitant but gives a small nod. “Okay, where could we teleport to?”

They take a minute to contemplate and discuss the location. Hongjoong pulls out the original map and Seonghwa points out the original route they had. Many cities are too far or not far enough, some they’ve never been to before, which makes teleportation near impossible. After some back and forth, they agree on St. Louis and look up pictures on their phones, giving Wooyoung some time to study them. 

“This will be risky,” Wooyoung comments.

“Options are sadly thin. Let’s get all our stuff together,” Hongjoong says, motioning to their scattered bags and belongings. 

Everyone collects their things and then forms a circle. Wooyoung instructs them to hold on to each other tightly, to which Jongho digs his claws into Lauren’s clothes. Hongjoong takes her free hand in his and Wooyoung places his on her shoulder, brushing Jongho’s fur to make sure he doesn’t get lost. With all hands linked and the connection complete, Wooyoung closes his eyes and begins his magic. 

Unlike most, this teleportation is drawn out, pulling at every molecule of their being. What usually is a quick disorienting effect makes them feel like their benign pulled and stretched. There’s a moment of limbo, where everything hurts and the light is too bright, then like a rubber band they snap back into their skin and crash down onto solid concrete. Everyone falls, Wooyoung’s concentration severed before they even reach the ground. Wooyoung lands on his feet, but his eyes roll back and his body slumps. San reaches for him, rolling so he lands on the sidewalk instead with everyone else.

“Sorry,” Wooyoung says, groaning as he curls into San.

“You did good,” Seonghwa holds up a quick thumbs-up. 

They take a few to catch their breath before heading to the train station. Wooyoung hangs on San’s arm with Mingi and Yunho flanking them. Yeosang stays by Lauren and Jongho’s side while Hongjoong and Seonghwa take the lead. The station is fairly empty, which allows them to slip through with a minor glamor to make people look past them. Hongjoong charms the ticket counter lady, getting the best transport out of St. Louis heading straight for Las Vegas. With the bus number in mind, he moves to charm the bus driver, convincing him all of them have proper tickets and the club is a service pup in training. Once Hongjoong gives Seonghwa the ok signal, he guides everyone into the bus and gets them all situated so he can look over all their injuries again as they wait.

They set Lauren up in the far back corner, Jongho still in her arms, for protection reasons as they all settle into seats around them.

It’s a long day and a half trip. They take time to get food and eat at a few of the stops, even finding suitable food for Jongho to eat in his current form. 

Still stuck in her emotions and fear of rejection from the cove, Lauren stays put and doesn’t move unless she has to. At one point, she tries to give Jongho to one of the other members, but he protests and clings onto her, confusing all of them enough that they don’t fight his desire to stay with her. Seeing the others confused and discussing his behavior makes her even more worried. When they aren’t checking on Jongho though, they fall back into those main pairs she noticed before, only this time, Yeosang sits beside her after a stop, still quiet as ever, but very present and he stays beside her for the rest of the trip.

By the time they reach the station in Las Vegas, each of them has slept a proper amount and they’re all recharged and rested. Seonghwa takes a minute to change Lauren’s bandages and do a quick healing session on Jongho just before they arrive, making them fit for travel. Hongjoong explains they can teleport once they’re out of the city, but the walk to the desert is long, so they all take precautions, shedding their winter coats before they begin. Hours later they reach the outskirts, dessert stretching out before them as far as they can see. Knowing they’re safe from onlookers, they all take hands once more. Hongjoong focuses on a place in his mind, and Wooyoung focuses on channeling that image to transport them.

One second they’re in the scorching desert sun and the next they’re under the shade of a tree, the heat of the sun still boils the air around them but the slight breeze and the shade combined bring slight relief. 

“Where are we exactly?” Wooyoung asks, looking around at the mountains and trees around them.

“North,” Hongjoong waves his hand for them to follow, “it’s one of the few woodland places in this part of Nevada. Our coven established here as a safe space from the desert covens that used to rule over the area.”

“In the end, the high Coven put an end to them,” Seonghwa adds, smiling. 

“Exactly. Now, my mother built on the edge of coven lands, seeing as she is a bit of an outsider so her house should be - a ha!” they step out of the cluster of trees into a rocky mountain area dotted with houses and people, and just before them sits a rather worn looking wood building. In front of the house is a garden, full of plants used for potions, native to the dry landscape, and in the garden stands a woman with silver-white hair tied in a messy bun. Hongjoong’s face lights up and he waves his arms. “Mom!”

The woman looks up, confused. She scans the area, eyes landing on Hongjoong, then Seonghwa, and then the rest of the coven.

“Hongjoong, Seonghwa,” she smiles, shaking her head, “what have you gotten yourselves into?”

With a big grin, Hongjoong takes off running. His mother catches him as he throws his arms out. Seonghwa isn’t far behind, wrapping an arm around her shoulder in a gentle hug as he explains they need her help with an injured coven member.

“Oh, you have a coven!” she whispers, bouncing on her heels, “I’m so happy for you two! Okay, let me see the injured one,” she looks over the rest of them as they join. Her eyes find Lauren and Jongho, eyes narrowing as she takes in their state. “What have you been up to?”

“We’ll explain,” Hongjoong looks around the area, “but inside, out of earshot.”

They shuffle their way into Hongjoong’s family house, a modest and cozy place. The open floor plan makes it easy for everyone to settle in and around the living room. Hongjoong’s mother takes Jongho and places him on the dining table as Seonghwa explains what caused Jongho’s state and Hongjoong fills her in on what they’re up to.

“So yeah, with Lauren’s help we’re heading to find the High Coven,” he finishes, rubbing his mother’s back as she works.

“I told you it would happen someday, you just had to experience more before you could go to the High Coven. Both of you needed to get away,” she smiles, “I’m happy you’re still by each other’s sides, your mother,” she turns to Seonghwa, “has been very worried about you.”

“Ah,” Seonghwa flushes, “I had a feeling she might be, but I had to go.”

Lauren watches this interaction; with her mind not worried about Jongho anymore. She can once again study the dynamics of the coven, and she notes the looks that Seonghwa and Hongjoong’s mother share.

“You two,” she shakes her head, looking back to Jongho, “inseparable and perfect for each other.”

A slight panic flashes through Seonghwa’s face as Hongjoong laughs, “we are, I couldn’t imagine my life without him. He’s a very important person to me,” he then gives Seonghwa a heart-stopping smile, making his face darken.

They’re all too busy relaxing and resting, no one notices when Lauren slips outside. Closing the door, she rests her head on the wood and listens to the laughter inside. She knows she should be with them, they’ve actually cared for her since everything went down, but she still feels left out, like she shouldn’t be with them. Shaking her head, she pushes off the door. She walks over to a small well pump and sits down, not worrying about the dust and dirt. She removes the bandages on her arms, exposing the burns to the scorching sun. Wincing, she pumps some water to rinse them off before she begins healing.

“There you are,” the voice startles her out of her concentration, “Seonghwa thought you might heal your own wounds,” it’s Yeosang crouching in front of her.

“I can handle myself,” the words come out of instinct. She almost regrets them, but Yeosang smiles and moves to sit in front of her.

“We know,” he pulls a roll of bandages from his pocket, “but help is always nice. Finish up and I’ll put these on for you.”

Lauren hesitates but starts healing again. They sit in silence for a while, the sun sinking below the mountains behind them as time passes. As the last rays disappear, Yeosang summons a small glowing orb, casting enough light for Lauren to finish. Once he’s sure she’s done, he takes her hand and wraps her arm.

“Why?”

Yeosang hums in confusion, raising a brow.

“Why are you so nice to me? Better yet,” she huffs, shaking her head, “why did you punch Damien?”

“Why wouldn’t I punch him? He’s an asshole,” Lauren laughs, “but no one deserves to be treated like that, especially not you. You’re innocent, and I know how it feels to be innocent and treated as if you aren’t.”

Surprised, Lauren asks, “what happened to you? If it’s not too intrusive.”

He barks out a laugh, smiling, “you are, at this point, a part of our coven in my eyes. Nothing is intrusive anymore,” she tries to refute that point, but he moves forward with his story. “I was born to a coven in New Hampshire, one that tried their best to handle all their affairs without the High Coven’s intervention. I wasn’t well-liked; I was quiet and studied more than I socialized, but my sister and I were very close, and she loved how passionate I was about studying magic. While the coven frowned on it, they preferred fighting to studying. She would sneak around and find time to be with me while I studied. At some point though, the stress of it all got to her, and she,” he falters, hand pausing, “well … she decided she didn’t want to be here anymore. I was the one who found her,” he sighs, tying off the first bandage. He grabs her other arm, and continues, “and since I was the one who found her, they all assumed I did it. I don’t remember their reasons anymore, but even my parents believed I did it. I think they were going to lynch me, but I ran away. I took my sister’s favorite book as a reminder, and I ran away. It wasn’t until I met Yunho that I even trusted a witch again. I struggle with it, even trusting the rest of the coven we’ve created was hard. When your entire coven turns on you, it messes with your head,” he ties off the last bandage and then takes her hand. “What I’m saying is I understand and no one should be treated like that.”

Lauren’s cheeks heat up, his warm and caring gaze refreshing. Her stomach flutters as he raises her hand in his, placing a gentle kiss on her knuckles. “I’m sorry that happened to you, but I’m glad you understand.”

“I can’t explain it, but I knew when I saw you that … I don’t know,” he chuckles, running his free hand through his hair.

“I get it,” she smiles, squeezing his hand, “I mean, why else would you come to a random witch and comfort them when you have such trust issues,” they laugh. “Knowing that, I guess it’s just one of those instant connections.”

He hums, “poor timing though. So much is going on right now.”

“I know, but once it’s all settled,” she leaves the rest hanging between them, but he understands.

“Yeah,” he squeezes her hand, “as soon as we get to the High Coven and things settle down. I promise,” he lifts her hand and kisses it once more, “let’s go get some food, Seonghwa, and Hongjoong’s mom are cooking. I think Yunho was going to help, he’s been learning to cook from Seonghwa.”

When they return, still holding hands, no one comments even though a few give them knowing looks and Seonghwa makes sure Yeosang wrapped her wounds properly. Hongjoong’s mom creates a space for everyone to sleep in the living area after dinner, setting up Jongho in Hongjoong’s old room where Seonghwa leaves some of his clothes for him and a glass of water in the hopes he may shift back overnight.

In the morning, Seonghwa’s mom comes over to see him and meet the coven. With Seonghwa occupied, Lauren takes time to check on Jongho between his healing sessions and sit with him while the others are busy. As she leaves his room, she’s pulled aside in the hallway by San.

“I found this by the river bank before we teleported,” he holds his hand out, revealing her mother’s necklace in his palm.

“Oh my god!” she feels around her neck and upon not feeling it she grabs it, holding it to her chest. “Thank you, you have no idea what this means to me, thank you.”

“You hold on to it when you’re stressed,” he points out, “I thought it might be important.”

She hums and nods her head, “it’s my mother’s. I’ve been using it to track her, but tracking isn’t my specialty.”

“When was the last time she had this?”

“Right after I was born. Which is why it’s so hard? Even if I had good tracking skills, it would be difficult.”

San stares at it for a second, tilting his head. Just as she thanks him and walks away, he reaches for her arm, “wait. I could, if you want, see what I can get from it. Tracking is my specialty.”

Her eyebrows shoot up, mouth opening. “That would be nice,” clearing her throat, she relaxes her features, “you don’t have to though. That would be helpful and I’d appreciate it, but you don’t have to.”

“Don’t be so scared,” he laughs, reaching out to rub her head. “I think you may be a part of this coven yet. If you let me hold on to it, I can try finding some traces of your mother.”

There’s genuine smile on his face that releases her tension. She places the necklace back in his hand, “thank you. Im aware I wasn’t your favorite person when I shook up your coven’s life, but I’m glad you don’t hate me.”

“Of course,” he almost looks offended, “I mean, it was a rocky start, but I think we’re finding our footing with you.”

They return to the rest of the coven in the living room. It’s hours later before he makes any progress. Jongho starts to shift back, his body deeming itself healed enough, but it’s a rough process. Hongjoong and Seonghwa coax him back into his human form and help him, but as soon as his form settles he passes out from the excretion; Hongjoong’s mother gets to work on mending his wounds as they reopen. Once the rest leave her to her work, Lauren watches from the doorway, biting her thumb as Jongho’s face twists in pain.

“You can join me,” his mother says, hands hovering over the large gash on Jongho’s back. “My son tells me he was protecting you?”

Lauren hums, moving to sit on the bed beside him.

“Your attacker wasn’t playing around,” pulling her hands away, she motions for Lauren to grab the bandages on the nightstand. “This is, by far, the most intense magic wound I’ve seen, and our coven members come in with some rather nasty wounds. I’m always patching them up it seems.”

Passing the bandages over, she says, “my coven wants me dead. My father ha-” she hesitates, “he had information about them that would get them a full court trial and prison, if not death, and now I have the information.”

“It’s brave to be collecting any information like that on your own coven, especially one that’s capable of this,” she wraps the wound, instructing Lauren to hold Jongho up as she rolls the bandages around his chest. They work in silence for a few minutes, then they lay him back down and Lauren runs her hand through his hair. “If I may ask, how did you get the information? Did your father die?”

Lauren hums, closing her eyes while nodding her head.

“I’m sorry,” she lays her hand on her shoulder, squeezing it.

They share no more words. She finishes patching up his wounds before going to see about dinner, leaving Lauren to take her chair. At some point, she closes her eyes and drifts off. She’s surprised when she’s woken by the gentle call of her name. Her eyes open after a couple blink; she finds the room has darkened and there is a warm blanket wrapped around her shoulder. The voice calls her name again; she turns to find Yeosang crouching next to her.

“Seonghwa wants you to eat,” he explains.

Nodding, Lauren lets him pull the blanket off and help her up. In the living room, Hongjoong is asleep on Seonghwa’s lap while San and Wooyoung sit at the dinner table. In front of San sits Lauren’s compass, spinning as he weaves his magic through it.

Yeosang sets her down next to him as she says, “you didn’t have to mess with it now.”

“Oh, but he did,” Wooyoung chimes in from his spot across the table, “he was going stir crazy. He’s not able to track the High Coven, and it’s driving him nuts. I swear if he didn’t have something to do I was gonna strangle him.”

San rolls his eyes. “You’re such a dramatic, I was just bored, and I have made headway! Your mother is close, like within the state close, I think.”

“Really?” she perks up as Yeosang places a plate of food in front of her.

“Yeah, but I can’t be totally sure, so don’t get too excited. This will take a bit.”

“Speaking of tracking, Hongjoong was wondering where the compass points to now,” Yeosang sits across from her and sets the compass in front of her, “eat a little first though.”

After taking a few bites of food, she picks up the compass. Thinking once again of the High Coven and her desire to finish what her dad started, pushing away the thoughts of her mother as best she can, she waits a second before the compass needle spins. Just as fast as it started spinning, it swings to a sharp stop and points southwest.

“Southwest.”

“I’ll check the maps again,” Seonghwa says, rubbing Hongjoong’s shoulder, “after he wakes up.”

“So whipped,” Wooyoung whispers, leaning closer to San, who giggles as Yeosang rolls his eyes.

As everyone settles, a commotion comes from the other side of the house. All heads turn in the hallway’s direction as a loud thud sounds out, followed by a door opening. Hongjoong wakes up as Mingi comes out from the hallway.

“Jongho’s awake!”

In the next instant, everyone is getting up and rushing down the hall to crowd into the room. Hongjoong’s mother stays just outside the door, watching as they surround him. Lauren trails behind them all, standing just inside the room as Jongho looks around with a wide smile.

“Hey guys,” his voice is hoarse, Seonghwa grabs the glass of water and holds it for him. After he takes a few sips, he asks, “where’s Lauren?”

All eyes turn to her. She wrings her hands in her shirt before taking a breath and stepping up to the bed, Yeosang places a gentle hand on her shoulder as she steps up to him.

Jongho’s smile grows wider, “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“You?” she laughs, blinking back tears, “Jongho, you scared me half to death. Why did you even do that? For me of all witches?”

He gives a soft laugh, clearing his throat, “you don’t know my powers, do you?” she shakes her head. “I’m a medium, it runs in my coven. We see and speak to the dead if they are strong enough. Some spirits are faint, while others are loud and very present. I’ll admit, I still wasn’t keen on your magic loyalties when your coven showed up and chased us, but as I went back to find you I heard you and Damien, and then I heard this ear-splitting scream of your name that didn’t come from this plane of existence,” everyone looks apprised by this, Lauren just stares at him as he reaches up to rub his ear as if still hearing the sound. “There was a spirit following you since we met, faint and barely there, but at that moment they used all their strength left to form a barrier around you and it was by far the brightest energy I’ve seen in a spirit. I only had a split second to react as Damien fired at you, but I knew that if a spirit with that much light in them was protecting you,” he turns to look at her as he reaches to grab her hand, “then you have no true darkness in your own spirit. You’ve just been tainted, and that can be cleaned. I wasn’t going to let you die like that.”

Lauren doesn’t realize she’s sobbing until Yeosang starts to rub her back, crouching down next to her. Jongho squeezes her hand once more.

“Sadly, their death damaged them,” he continues, “it was a struggle for them to even manifest at all, so they’re presence before that moment and since then has been very faint, more so now.”

A loud sob wrecks her body, causing her to curl into her chest as she tries to catch her breath. “My dad,” she chokes out, shaking, “it was a train explosion that killed him. A train explosion started by pure hellfire, it was sudden and destructive.”

Jongho squeezes her hand, nodding his head in understanding.

“That would be why his spirit isn’t strong, but he has a very bright soul and he’s watching over you. When I’m stronger,” he pauses, waiting until she looks back at him, “we can do a seance and you can speak to him.”

Lauren nods, sniffling. “Thank you,” she squeezes his hand once more and then pulls back to wipe her face, “for everything.”

Seonghwa makes Jongho take another long drink of water while instructing someone to get something warm for Lauren to drink. Hongjoong’s mom is quick to offer herbal tea for everyone, ducking out of the room so they can have time with Jongho. He tries to get filled in on what he missed, but everyone insists he rests for the night. They stay with him for a few hours until they’ve finished the tea, and he’s fast asleep. Mingi and Yunho stay in the room with him while the rest retreat to the living room for some much-needed sleep. By this point, Lauren has stopped shaking, but the exhaustion settles in and she finds herself curling up against Yeosang for the evening.

By afternoon the next day, they fill Jongho in on the recent information and they spread out the maps over the dining table. Despite Hongjoong’s mother and Seonghwa nagging him to stay in bed, Jongho is up and walking around, his strength isn’t back in full but he refuses to stay still any longer.

All nine of them sit at the table and discuss the possible High Coven location. With most of them being from this side of the country, they know enough about which lands belong to covens and which ones don’t. They rule most major cities out early just for being too populated for any kind of secrecy, and Jongho pours his knowledge of the California mountain and valley covens onto the map as best he can remember. He reminds them he left California a long time ago, so the information may not be up to date.

“Alright,” Hongjoong calls attention back to the map after another long discussion, “with everything we know I think it’s safe to say they aren’t in the mountains or anywhere between the mountains and the coast.”

“That just leaves the Mojave, right?” Mingi leans over the map, “and if it’s southwest of here, then you just have the empty Nevada desert and Death Valley.”

San sighs, slumping back in his chair, “both options are in an almost inhospitable land. Plenty of people live in the Nevada desert between the major highways, but Death Valley? Only a handful of people can live there year round.”

Everyone falls silent.

Seonghwa sits up and taps Death Valley on the map, “then that’s where they live, the one place no one would even think to search. Death Valley.”

“He has an excellent point,” Lauren says, “we can always test the compass as we get closer, but I think out of all the areas that makes sense. No other coven has ever stayed there, right?”

“Right,” Jongho agrees, “my mom said every coven in this area has declared that spot too hostile.”

Hongjoong clicks his tongue, nodding along with Jongho, “okay, if everyone’s on board with that then we’ll start there.”

With confirmation and agreeing sounds from everyone, Hongjoong circles Death Valley and closes up the map just as a knock comes from the front door.

“Stay,” Hongjoong’s mother sweeps into the room, motioning the coven to sit, “hopefully we aren’t in trouble, just stay there,” they all share wary looks as she opens the door. She doesn’t move for a second, blinking at the tall figure on the other side. “Richard, what are you doing here?”

“I heard your son had returned,” a deep voice answers. The figure pushes his way inside, relieving a grizzly man with a clean-shaven head, “with a bunch of witches that you are housing. Now you know we aren’t keen on refugees and such so I’m concerned that,” he stops as he looks at the rest of them. His eyes zero in on Lauren, and she shrinks back to step behind Seonghwa, “why hello there Lauren.”

The color drains from her face, her breath short as everyone stands in defense.

“Kensington will be so happy you’re safe and unharmed.”

Hongjoong’s mother comes back at this, stepping forward with furrowed brows. “Kensington?”

“Yes, her coven head,” he waves a dismissive hand while giving Lauren a gut turning smile, “he’s been worried sick looking for her! Poor thing had a misunderstanding and ran off. By the way,” he makes a move forward towards her, but Yeosang steps forward with a challenge in his eyes. Richard gives him a bored look before focusing on Lauren, “I am sorry for your loss, your father was a good friend of Kensington’s. Such a shame. I must inform him in the morning of your safety, they’d love you to come back to talk things over.”

“I’m good,” she says, hands shaking, “I think I’m fine without going back to my coven.”

Unperturbed by this, Richard waves her off, “either way, Kensington will be pleased. I should get going, I just wanted to pop in and see,” he flashes a smile before patting Hongjoong’s mother on the shoulder, “they don’t seem dangerous so they can stay. Have a good night.”

As quickly as he came, he’s gone with a click of the door. No one moves or speaks, they take a second to process the new situation.

Hongjoong’s mom is the first to speak, voice soft as she turns to face them, “Kensington, as in Micheal Kensington?”

Lauren pulls herself together, nodding, “yeah, how do you know his full name?”

“I - wait, coven head?” she looks confused, running a hand through her hair as she looks around the room. “He’s coven head now?”

“Well, yes and no?” she steps out from behind Seonghwa, “he’s been our High Priest since I was a kid.”

“Oh, that’s rich,” Hongjoong’s mom rolls her eyes, voice stronger now, “I leave, and he gets a promotion? That’s rich. I bet he gave himself that promotion too.”

“Mom,” Hongjoong tries to speak, but Lauren is already asking a question over him.

“You were in my coven?” she moves around the table, “my mom used to be in our coven as well, she left when I was born, do you think you might have known her? Ah here, San where’s the necklace?”

Still shocked by everything, San takes a second to pull the necklace from his pocket and hand it to her. Once she has it, she walks across the living room to show it to her.

“This was her necklace,” she holds it, letting Hongjoong’s mother take it, “I found it in her old room before I left. I’ve been using it to track her. San said she may be close. Do you recognize it?”

Hongjoong moves to join them, muttering about how his mom never talked about her past coven, and he eyes Lauren as his mom looks down at the necklace. They wait as she turns it over and smiles, something swims in her eyes, but neither can place the emotion.

“I recognize this,” she says, “this is my necklace.”


End file.
